Here’s what I took away from PodcampNYC 2.0:

Doing 1 thing great > 2 things good > 3 things average…etc.

But how do you do one thing really great as a business? Start by listening.

Provide a space, physical or digital, for your customers to ask you questions, ask each other questions, make suggestions, complain or praise.

Then:

• Answer questions
• Thank people for their suggestions and look at implementing those ideas
• Apologize for mistakes or defects and fix promptly
• Humbly accept compliments
• Be quick
• Be human

Interact with a customer on their terms. That’s the beauty of the web. It is live and asynchronous all at once.

Be aware, when you do open up, you’re going to see some criticism. Some of it is probably going to be harsh and that’s OK. Take a deep breath. Respond politely and try to ease their pain. Imagine if you convert someone who really hates you. They’ll probably give you twice the respect and be a outspoken advocate.

So, what are some online tools to get you started?

Twitter (in practice with JetBlue)

Get Satisfaction (in practice with PBwiki)

Disclaimer: I own stock in Netflix.

Netflix is doing a great job of opening up lines of communication with its customers. It’s simple and it needs to be a standard for all businesses.

They’ve set up a community using Ning.

They’ve also got a blog. Oh, and did I mention their Facebook page?

Why every business doesn’t have a blog and community (and sometimes wiki) set up is lamebrained. You could literally have all two or three up and running in under an hour using Blogger, Wordpress, PBWiki, Ning or a host of other free/cheap service providers.

It’s especially useful when customers have a complaint or question about your product. In the case of Netflix, it’s been especially useful during the past year in explaining to customers the stopping block for instant viewing on Macs and on Firefox.

It won’t necessarily make the problem go away, but as a customer, knowing someone is listening and working to fix the problem is more than half the battle.

We live in a culture of change and the fast flow of information. The worst thing you can do is forget to lay the plumbing down.

You certainly don’t want to end up here.