Web Sight - Let Your Customers Lead

By: Katharine MieszkowskiWed Dec 19, 2007 at 12:14 AM

Web strategist David Siegel says: "Don't redesign your Web site. Redesign your company."

Today, every customer that a company has is part salesperson and part watchdog for that company. Given that reality, you as a business leader need to be hearing from dissatisfied customers before anyone else does. Either you work with them to make your company better, or they work together to tear your company down.

What are a few of the things that all of us should be doing differently because of the Web?

Every person in every company should spend at least 10 minutes a day answering customer email. Senior executives should spend even more time doing that. You need to keep your finger on the pulse of your customers. Most executives have a hard time admitting that they don't know what their customers really want. Some of them even think that they create demand for their products! Responding to email is one of the best ways to listen and learn. Let your customers start the conversation.

You should also encourage your people to embrace the Web in the same way that 13-year-olds embrace it -- as if it were no big deal. Thirteen-year-olds use the Web for the same reasons that they use any reference tool: to find what they're looking for and to enjoy the process. If they have questions, they get answers. But they also meet people. They collaborate. They communicate. All employees in a company should surf the Web for at least 20 minutes every day. They should look for new Web sites, discover new tools, assemble their own links, and share those links with their colleagues. That way, everybody is a scout. Everybody is a spy.

Don't treat the Web as this superserious, supersober, "mission-critical" technology that gets controlled by a small group called the "Web team." Treat it as an everyday tool that's useful, fun, and a great way to connect people. If it takes seven days to make a change to your Web site, then you're in trouble. How about putting a staff telephone directory on your site? How many companies do that? So many companies use the Web to put their product catalogs and marketing collateral on their customers' desktops. Instead, they should be putting their employees on their customers' desktops.

How can you tell if your Web site matters to your customers?

Here's the acid test: Take your server offline and see what happens. I mean it. Come in on a Monday at 8 AM, unplug your Web server for two hours, and measure the reaction. What should you hope for? Phones ringing off the hook! Death threats! Volunteers coming out of the woodwork offering to help! If that doesn't happen, then your customers are going somewhere else to get what they need.

The bottom line is that your employees must be passionate about coming to work every day, and your customers must be passionate about interacting with your company. But there's no way to force passion. The job of a leader is to create the kind of environment in which passion flourishes on its own -- a customer-led environment that helps to keep the fires burning.

Katharine Mieszkowski (katharinem@fastcompany.com) , a Fast Company senior writer, is based in San Francisco. some of the sidebar information is adapted from David Siegel's new book, "Futurize Your Enterprise". Visit the book's companion site (www.futurizenow.com) , or contact David Siegel by email (david@siegelvision.com).

Sidebar: The Truth Economy

If you're not willing to talk about an issue, your customers will take on that issue as a crusade.

The more you ignore your customers, the stronger they get.

If there is one person on Earth from whom you want to hide a certain Web page, that person will see the page within 24 hours of your putting it online.

If you have something to hide, you may not want to put it online. That's okay: One of your disgruntled customers will be more than happy to do it for you.

Visit Yahoo!'s list of "consumer opinion" sites to find out if your company has a protest site.