"Why should I do the company's work for it?"

We have heard this question raised in regards to the open conversations happening in Get Satisfaction between companies and customers.

Asking customers for their feedback and getting them involved in the process isn't about asking for free labor, it's about empowering customers to have a voice. In doing so they can collaborate with the company to help make the company's products and services better meet the customer's needs, they create more transparency in the relationship and in the process build trust. Often times customers do quite innovative things with a product that the company might not have thought of on their own. In these cases, customers are the best source of answers and input.

In Get Satisfaction, anyone can create a community around any company even if the company's not involved. The hope here, though, to is make a win-win for companies and customers where they're all engaging in productive conversations. It is in no way intended to replace one-on-one communications -- there are times when that's the best course of action. However, we have found that everyone wins when answers are exposed to all users, answers come from company reps as well as customers--who might have a different perspective--and companies aren't having to answer the same question over and over and thus have more time to build a better product.