Hi and welcome to Customers First month at FastCompany.com. It seems like topic A around the watercooler these days has been how poorly we're being treated as customers lately. The irony, of course, is that companies talk more than ever about how to better serve us.

Well, the fact is that some do treat us really well. In fact, some companies go so far as to take an everyday transaction and turn it into an entertaining experience. That idea drove us this year in putting together the Customers First package you may have already seen in print, and in particular the expanded Web package we've built around it that we hope you enjoy on the site.

Follow the jump for a full explanation of what we have in store for you this month.

• Listen to our podcast interviews with executives from the winners discussing how they create singular experiences
• Nominate your own Customers First companies for readers to vote on and vote and comment on our winners, runners-up, and local and regional standouts
• See how you rate against the rest of the country's customer rage
• Find the best local and regional experiences where you live with our interactive map mashup
• View our slideshows devoted to past winners discussing the companies they admire for the way they treat their customers--and read their stories
• Read our personal experiences with this year's Customers First winners and runners-up

And, interact with our expert guest bloggers. Here's the lineup:

September 4-8: Jeanne Bliss, managing partner, Customer Bliss, and author of Chief Customer Officer (Jossey-Bass, 2006).

September 11-15: Lewis Carbone, CEO, Experience Engineering, and author of Clued In (Prentice Hall, 2004).

September 18-22: Kate Newlin, principal, Kate Newlin Consulting, and the author of Shopportunity! (Collins, 2006).

September 25-29: James Gilmore, principal, Strategic Horizons, and co-author of The Experience Economy (Harvard Business School Press, 1999).

We hope you enjoy all that we've put together surrounding this topic and this issue. We're passionate about it, and obviously, we'd love your feedback. Let's have a fun month talking about what we can do better to serve customers and what we as customers are demanding of the companies we do business with.

David Lidsky
Senior Editor