The Social Customer Manifesto: Reaching Out: Four Retail Comp...

A definite step in the right direction for the company, with actual employees communicating about their individual areas of interest, with minimal company shilling taking place.

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The bold TERMS AND CONDITIONS of the blog also state: "McDonald's owns any comments or other content that you post on this site. That means that McDonald's has the right to make, have made, offer for sale, use, sell, copy, distribute, perform, transmit, display, modify, adapt and otherwise use your submission(s) throughout the world in perpetuity in any manner that it sees fit without compensation to you. McDonald's also has the right to use your name in connection with any use of your submissions."  This is not the best method to develop trust and a long-term relationship with a customer.

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The key thing that Starbucks realizes is that these conversations are taking place anyway.  If this site didn't exist, customers such as the individual above would be making these comments in other forums that were removed from the organization, or on his or her own blog.  With My Starbucks Idea, the organization is getting the feedback in realtime, and has the opportunity to address issues in a rational and constructive way.

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