Customer Service Conversations, I

A few years ago, I was interviewed for Creating Customer Evangelists - and the somewhat-dated dialogue is still online. Back then, I saw Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell as sitting on the fringe of their industry. Today, I view them both as contemporaries. How so? The conversation is approaching the mainstream - if it's not already there.
Jackie is in town for a conference, and invited me to a small dinner tonight at Coastal Kitchen (which was quite a pleasant, eclectic experience). For what? Conversation with a small group of customer evangelists. Scoble was there with Maryam, and we were joined by a Pete Winemiller (VP of Service Development for the Seattle Sonics &amp Storm) and Paul Williams (Manager of the Customer Care Department for Starbucks). We talked about all sorts of ideas and comment-worthy events, but nothing specific. I could tell that Maryam missed Ponzi, who's been hard at work on the Lockergnome taxes in recent days.
Yes, we're THAT small.
Customer service is important, but it needs to evolve. Traditional customer service organizations are still living in the '70s as far as communication goes. Hell, I'm still working with folks who rely on… FAX machines?! No, that's not customer service - it's lip service. I don't want to see a generic customer service email address, I want to see that the customer service is really ready to engage the customer. BTW, Ponzi's finally reading The Cluetrain Manifesto after hearing so much about it; we'll see if it makes any difference in how she views our current role in the marketplace. We're publishing all sorts of content every day (Lockergnome), moving our conference forward every year (Gnomedex), and disseminating our conversations regularly every week (The Chris Pirillo Show).
Yes, we're THAT proactive, but not without our share of headaches.

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