Apple can completely ignore customers as they own a monopoly of mindshare in a particular technology have everyone wants and they are making money hand over fist.

Seesmic have a cool product but they are riding a hype wave by giving their customers a free service. I don’t see a viable monetization strategy there unless they eventually grow so much that twitter depend on them.

Neither serve as useful examples to someone trying to figure out how to balance listening to your customers with running a viable business.

As you hint, the truth is somewhere in between.

I would agree with you that it’s somewhere in between – companies should and do listen to their customers. From a strategic perspective, companies, brand owners and business owners need to have a direction in which they want to proceed and stick within the parameters of it – neither stick to it in stone or move onto another path if something appears better or more lucrative.

Within these parameters, then customer feedback can be taken on board and assessed for the growth of the company.

I was involved in releasing a strategic product into the EMEA market. The product originated in the US. The first couple of names that the US guys suggested just didn’t work on our side of the pond. Thankfully, the US listened to my product specialists and customer reviews/feedback to the product.

We balanced the feedback – the name was decided and suited all countries but the functionality was more US than EMEA focused. The company had a greater share of the market in the US so for that reason it made sense somewhat!. But that is another topic entirely!

Thanks for the post – I really enjoyed reading it.

They listen and engage them and then get publicity from their crazyness. Yes their customer service is appalling and they may ignore feedback on their ‘product’ but can it really be said they don’t listen?