A few months ago, during one of Balihoo's Friday morning trips to the local Starbucks coffee shop, I noticed an interesting display on the counter.  It was a clear container full of green sticks with little mermaids adorning their tops.  What caught my eye, in particular, was the message on the display.  In case you can't read it on the attached picture, it says:

'Inspired By You!  A great idea brought to us by YOU. Keep 'em coming - we're listening!  
- MyStarbucksIdea.com

I was immediately impressed with Starbucks' proactive approach to connecting with their customers and letting them know they're listening.  I quickly realized it wasn't about spilled coffee, the need to stir in four packets of sugar, or cute green mermaids.  Starbucks easily could have produced the 'splash sticks' and simply started stocking them in their shops alongside the sugar packets and napkins.  But instead, they took the time to create a new display and a friendly message to catch the eyes of their customers as they ordered coffee.

Connecting with customers is something all business should strive to do.  And there is no better opportunity to reach out and show them you care than when you have clearly listened to their feedback and acted on it.

Being a growing company, Balihoo has a lot to learn from our customers.  Although we already think our co-op advertising and local marketing software is pretty cool, we realize there is a long path of development ahead of us, and much of that path is yet to be mapped.  We will have to listen to our customers and continue building our product so it doesn't just meet their needs and expectations, it exceeds them.

We're already doing a lot to give our current users the opportunity to let us know what they think about our software and how we can make it better.  From our user experience study group, to email surveys and the feedback tool in the corner of our homepage, we want people to feel comfortable telling us exactly what they want.

And from my own experience interacting with our users, I'm going to agree with Starbucks that it's a lot more fun to make a big deal about a new product, new design, or new feature, than to quietly launch it and wait to see who notices.