How does Get Satisfaction communicate with companies?

I love the idea of writing a column for the Wall Street Journal. Bring it on!

What we're really working at is getting beyond just complaints. We don't consider this a complaint site. While we understand there are a lot of things broken about customer service, we firmly believe that making this a "Switzerland" for customer service is where we can shine. So, companies that want to be responsive, want to embrace online media, want to provide human-centric customer service will find our site a great way to do that. I understand that not every company with broken customer service seeks to do that, but I think that they increasingly will want to as they come to understand the importance and necessity of connecting with unsatisfied (and influential) customers online.

We do reach out to companies that aren't participating. When someone asks a question in a company section where the company hasn't yet joined us, we do our best to notify them and let them know that their customers are here and looking for their attention. They don't always join, but you'd be surprised at how often they do. We have thought about some other ways to have customers send their own messages directly to companies that aren't responding, and I look forward to implementing them.

And, yes, we have some thought leadership initiatives we work on. We've had huge success with our speeches at conventions and to companies who want to learn more about how to inhabit the online space. We've also hosted our own "Customer Service is the New Marketing" event, and we plan on some "Customer Camps" in the future. We're pretty keen on spreading the word, and it's going very well.

Simply put: We're huge on introspection, and we spend a lot of time on the strategy. As I say, we don't want this to be a place where customers get together and simply kvetch. Some of those kinds of sites are pretty negative and are mostly focused on harnessing anger to sell advertising.

Fire away if you have any specific ideas. I have quite a few of my own, and we're always working on new ways to reach companies, but in a way that doesn't scare them into responding. We'd prefer that they genuinely want to improve their customer service, and so far, quite a few have signed up for our premium services. They genuinely care.

Thanks for bringing it up. I think it will help kick me into gear and do more blogging and connecting now that the holidays have gone away.