clipped from blog.getsatisfaction.com

As Thor pointed out in his post on “Why Customer Service is the New Marketing,” companies often see customer service as an after-the-fact cost center — a post-sale, one-way transaction. And when that’s the case, it’s true that customer service does end up cast in a supporting role. But now we have the Web, and the Web is all about two-way communication. With the expanded voice the Internet affords people through blog posts, pod- and videocasts, discussion forums, even simple commenting, there’s a huge opportunity for companies and customers to expand the definition of “customer service” to include a whole lot more of the conversation going on around the things they sell.