Since starting Kalivo, we are continually asked for examples where the customer has taken charge using the Web to effect change in a company that serves them, or at the very least begin to have their voice heard. I am a bit late to highlight this example, but since it’s only been about 2 weeks, I think it’s still news and it is an effective example. So, here goes.

Recently a video communication between Mazda and its dealers was made public on the Web via Google Video. In it contained an announcement of a change in procedure whereby Mazda would not count poor customer satisfaction survey scores at dealerships for their RX-8 product. Rather than recount the entire episode here, John Neff from Autoblog has done a great job summarizing the entire event and the ensuing customer eruption on the Web.

I believe this event is another good example of the power that customers increasingly have using the technologies and the global conversation vehicle of the Web today. It also highlights how rapidly an incident like this can expand.

Following this story to Digg, a content community site where a story can ascend to the top of the heap based on how many people in the community voted for (i.e. “digg”) the story, you can see well over 300 Digg users thought this was interesting.

What’s more, the RX-8 enthusiast site, RX-8 Club had a discussion on this issue as well. This site is compelling, as it appears to be loaded with current RX-8 owners, whom of course are potential repeat customers and product evangelists. I counted some statistics for the rx8club.com community, and here they are: over 6,360 members, 13,789 discussion threads, and 234,215 individual posts! Pretty active for a single product line from Mazda.

Mazda chose to respond to this incident with a stock message directed at the RX-8 community site rx8club.com directly from the Product Communications Manager of Mazda’s North American operations. This stock response was a classic blessed message with no ability to reply, respond or otherwise engage. It can be viewed by clicking on either the Autoblog link or rx8club.com discussion link above. Mazda needed to seize on this event and engage with its enthusiasts here, rather than deliver a stock one-way message; rather they chose to pass on the opportunity to further degrade goodwill with their customers.

For me, this incident, the response from Mazda, and the ensuing additional frustration among RX-8 customers is a tangible example and it highlights a few important points:

• customers are now empowered by their own ability to self-aggregate and interact on the Web, and they are increasingly leveraging that power
• the traditional means of communicating with a one-way approach in a world that is now empowered with dialog and conversation, is inappropriate and ineffective
• companies that do not equip themselves with the tools and processes for customer engagement in this new conversation environment will see their customer base erode as competitors that do begin to better meet their needs

Leading companies have already begun the process of quickly upgrading their customer engagement capability. A compelling business case exists for doing so sooner rather than later.

Where does your company stand on embracing the new ways of customer engagement?

– brian