I don’t know about you, but I rely on word-of-mouth observations nearly every single day, whether it’s asking a co-worker what they think of a local restaurant (which I did today, twice) or going online to scout out advice from real people about the best external hard drive to purchase (which I did last month; I settled on this one). That kind of authentic reccomendation is powerful.

There’s a simple way to take this natural compulsion people have to seek out advice from neutral parties and apply it to your business. Ready to find out how much someone loves or hates you? Ask them if they’d recommend you to a friend. This stark question yields a wealth of information.

When companies start to ask this one question, they can quickly see how many people (current, potential and former customers) are with them — and how many are against them. That’s valuable data. Again, it sounds simple, but there are a gaggle of brand-consulting firms out there who will cheerfully charge a company many thousands of dollars to answer these two simple questions: Do they love you or hate you? How much?

When companies start examining this kind of cut-and-dry (sometimes painfully honest) measurement, it can help them begin the process of actually listening to their customers. To help encourage that kind of customer-to-company interaction, we’ve added a new feature: You can now recommend or discourage people from using a company and its products.

It’s quite straightforward: Pick any company or product you see on Get Satisfaction and tell us how much you’d recommend it to a friend. It’s an excellent way to — by sheer force of numbers — show companies what everyone really thinks about their products and services. It’s a simple way of saying “numbers don’t lie”: We care this much; no more, no less. When companies see the results, they can very easily determine whether they’re doing enough… or need to do more.

We think this is one of the sharpest features we’ve introduced so far on Get Satisfaction, and we’re keenly interested in hearing what you think of it. In the near future, we’ll be using this information in ways that will help both consumers and companies. It’s the first of many new features we’re hard at work on that will really help everyone get more value out of the system.

Do you love/hate/want to discuss it? Fire away with your observations about our new feature — but only after you’ve already judged us on that same 10-point scale.

The big news this past week in Web 2.0 world: Starbucks dipped its toe into the pool where community and customers converge.

They launched a new Web site, MyStarbucksIdea. It’s essentially a Dell IdeaStorm clone designed to get feedback from customers. Give us your ideas on how to improve Starbucks, they say. Sounds fairly straightfoward, but there is monumental disagreement as to whether this idea is good, bad, or somewhere in between.

Is it merely a virtual suggestion box with voting? That’s the take of many people on Jim Romenesko’s StarbuckGossip.com, a site that’s always been critical of the company. “MyStarbucksIdea.com was clearly inspired by my site, which was created nearly four years ago to move barista/customer conversations to the Web,” Romenesko tells the Seattle Times. “My site will continue to thrive because it’s an authentic reflection of how customers and employees feel about the company. MyStarbucksIdea.com, on the other hand, is clearly a corporate propaganda site.”

He’s right about one thing. It’s missing the big detail that marks a true community: authenticity.

The way I see it, the site looks like a collection of possible improvements their marketing department already knew their customers wanted. Give us free Wi-Fi. Stop selling those warmed-over breakfast sandwiches and start serving something healthy like fruit. Give me a free cup of coffee on my birthday. I bet they’ve heard nearly all of these ideas before. I can’t help but imagine their marketing department sitting in a massive room scribbling out a giant flow-chart bracket on a whiteboard — their own version of March Madness.

But, it may be unduly harsh to call it propaganda. Yes, it’s censored and filtered, and yes, it’s wearing a grass-roots disguise, but it is doing one thing right: involving customers in conversations about Starbucks’ products. Whether you love or hate Starbucks, I think they deserve some credit for this relatively bold step. They need to lose their impulse to control the conversation if they want to be seen as legitimately caring about what their customers have to say, but it is a step in the right direction.

I’m betting that Starbuck’s new foray into customer feedback is an idea that nearly every media-savvy Forbes 500 executive will be pondering this week. If this idea gets co-opted and adopted by others, here’s hoping they get the other half right — the true community involvement — and not just ladle in an extra helping of marketing.

Starbucks is on Get Satisfaction.]

Two weeks ago, Rackspace, the San Antonio-based IT hosting provider, announced their Fanatical Support Promise.

Sounds like a PR campaign, huh?

Only, it’s not. These folks mean it. As they put it:

“It’s the no excuses, no exceptions, can-do way of thinking that Rackers [Rackspace employees] bring to work every day. Your complete satisfaction is our sole ambition. Anything less is unacceptable. Working hard 24×7x365 to support you is more than our job. It’s who we are. Our driving purpose is to take care of your business, to make sure things go as smoothly as possible. And if for some reason they don’t, you’ll be surprised at the lengths we go to make things right. Any issue you have is quickly taken care of by your own expert Rackspace Support Team, so you’ll never have to worry about it again. Ever.”

Did they just say, “Your complete satisfaction is our sole ambition?” That’s just about the most forceful customer service attitude I’ve ever heard, and I wanted to call it out as an example for anyone else who’s planning on being known for their support. You should steal their idea — but only if you mean it.

This is a great strategy, but they’d better be able to back it up because the long and short of this promise is that Rackspace will break any contract their customers have signed with them if those customers are unhappy. That’s a pretty impressive stance for an IT host. It basically kills the contract, but it extends a big hand to potential customers. It also means they will actually have to perform for you, which is the way I personally like my subscription-based services. I like to be able to cut them off if I’m unhappy. I’m petty like that.

What makes this promise really impressive to me is that it empowers customer service reps to step up and provide authentic help — to do whatever needs doing to get things done. That’s a key detail that most stodgy corporations get very wrong: They prefer their reps to be nameless and faceless and by-the-book. I wasn’t surprised to learn, then, that Rackspace is also on the 2008 list of Money magazine’s 100 best places to work. I also notice that Rackspace recently announced their 4,000th customer. Sounds like they’re doing a heck of a lot right.

Is it possible to actually be this awesomely incredible at customer service? Probably not, but it’s certainly possible to try, and they are apparently willing to try harder than anyone else.

This sounds like more than just customer service to me. It sounds like marketing. Smart marketing.

[Rackspace is on Get Satisfaction.]

Wal-Mart has been criticized for both sucking and blowing, but it looks like they may actually have a chance to polish their tarnished reputation.

After a number of years of dismal public relations blunders (in particular, an ill-fated PR-hatched Web site) Wal-Mart has finally figured out that people desire authentic experiences.

So, they’re letting their merchandising buyers blog about the products they come across. In fact, they’re actually encouraging them to speak their minds.

That’s a refreshing change of pace from a company that has continually refused to sell just about anything that might remotely offend anyone.

Will it work? Only time will tell, but — like any decent blog — it’s already started a few contentious arguments. There are already knee-jerk doubters accusing Wal-Mart’s PR firm of rigging the blog and an article in the New York Times lending credibility to the idea.

It’s tough to dig out from this kind of mess. I think that Wal-Mart’s reliance on short-term results over long-term reputation has put them in this spot. But, it’s nice to see them try to dig out.

[Wal-Mart and The New York Times are both on Get Satisfaction.]

I want Sandy, the e-mail virtual personal assistant, has a fun name. I don’t always want that in a product.

When I see products branded with “people” names, I get a little suspicious. I still don’t trust Jack, the FM radio station format that pretends to be all about variety. I was initially suspicious that Drobo, the world’s first storage robot, might go rogue and decide to trash my collection of MXC TV episodes. Don’t even ask me about Jeeves. That guy’s a quitter.

But, not Sandy. She’s fun. Maybe it’s the fetching Archie’s comic fashion style she sports. In my mind’s eye, I imagine Sandy speeding down a sunny, tree-lined street in a cherry red 1960 Corvette, stopping only to take dictation — when I have an appointment to make, of course.

Apparently, everyone else has a vision of what Sandy does in her off time, too. The discussion on Satisfaction one morning earlier this week was all about how Sandy had neglected to send her morning reminders to some users. This spurred some speculation that Sandy had gone AWOL from her job:

• “Hey Sandy, are you on strike? No daily digest this morning or reminders.”
• “Sandy, are you OK? I’m worried about you (but relieved that it isn’t only me that you’re shunning).”
• “Personal day? Kid’s got the flu? Snowed in?”
• “Has Sandy quit?”

In all, 48 replies by 21 participants over the course of just a few hours added up to a bunch of disappointed people.

Thankfully, the disappointment was short-lived.

The CEO of I Want Sandy, Rael Dornfest, jumped into the conversation: “I am so terribly sorry to be so late in replying to this thread. We seem to have had a problem with a load balancer (a system that routes e-mail from the outside world to our e-mail servers), which caused some portion of e-mail to Sandy to be deferred.”

Big points to Rael for acknowledging the problem and giving reasons behind the problem. That is what people in the business world call a “best practice” — it’s something that doesn’t happen as often as it should.

Not thirty minutes later, the problem was fixed, and Rael was back with more info: “Once again, I’m sorry for the no-show this morning. If you’re a new client and this was to have been her first day on the job, rest assured that this is in no way the norm — please do give Sandy another chance… I appreciate your patience and (under the circumstances) rather good humor.”

Even Sandy’s boss can’t help but talk about Sandy like she’s a real person. The fact that everyone cottons so well to this “Sandy” character seems like a good indication that branding with a “real” name might just work in this case.

I think it’s a testament to the growing popularity of Sandy that so many people felt stressed out when they woke up one morning to find Sandy missing.

I personally think Sandy deserves a raise.

How about you?

• What’s your opinion of Sandy?
• What’s your favorite or most despised brand with a “real” name?

[ I want Sandy is on Satisfaction ]