Problem: Companies claim to be customer oriented but in truth they fail to be truly and effectively near their customers.

Proposition: The power of the social media and the Internet should be utilized by building customer communities dedicated for sharing answers, ideas and solutions. Public customer community would be an open place where customers and employees of a company could meet and share information.

Implementation: Customer community should be implemented to the web and be easily accessible by anyone. It should offer tools (at least) for the following actions: asking questions, reporting problems and sharing ideas. Company should employ dedicated personnel who monitor the activities in the community by answering customers' messages and actively participating in discussion e.g. by commenting new product development ideas. Company should also enhance loyalty by e.g. rewarding the most productive members, sharing exclusive information or organizing competitions - in general, having fun with customers.

Value: Several operational benefits arise: Extension of customer support beyond traditional call centers and e-mailing. Cost-effective way to answer growing customer population (the ratio of new customer servants to new customers is no more linear). The productivity of an individual customer servant is increased exponentially as the given answers are re-usable and remain viewable to everybody - also repetitive issues decline. Response times increase. Company quickly starts getting better and faster product feedback and more accurate and innovative ideas for product development as the customers themselves know their needs best. Community can be integrated into products as a value-added service.

Strategically, the key issue is customer engagement: customers are no more treated only as buyers but important actors who are in true relationship with the company. This effectively affect to customer retention rates and satisfaction and thus company's financial performance in the long term.