Highly Caffeinated Feedback Loops

My first official review just came in about my upcoming book, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000.  Publisher's Weekly notes the book is "thoughtful and engaging."

"Informative, energetic and entertaining, this is a marvelous argument for corporate responsibility and accountability, interesting to laypeople and instructive for executives."

Whew! Much as I'm a tireless advocate for feedback, I'm also the first to concede a certain anxiousness about subjecting myself to the same standard.  When my publisher sent to first round of galleys to so-called "key influencers" (other authors, corporate bigwigs, thought-leaders), I found myself breaking a sweat when the deadline for testimonials passed and only a trickle of quotes had come in.  Alas, I thought, they think this book is destined for the trash heap.  Or maybe they strongly disagree with my argument, or think it's yesterday's news.  Or maybe they gave a big "Pete who?" and moved on to the next piece of mail?  The feeling was worse with folks I knew; nay, the silence was deadly.  But in the end, plenty of quotables came in, and in most cases a quick reminder did the trick.  Folks are busy, and reading a book -- even zipping through the first several chapters -- takes time.  You can't take it personally.  And even if they don't think it measures up, you can't take that personally either.  True to the title, I've no doubt lots of complaints will also work their way through the system.  But I guess that's also the point, right!   

Starbucks & The Feedback Loop:  On a related front, I recently talked to Elizabeth Gillespie of AP about Starbuck's customer feedback campaign, MyStarbucksIdea.com.  Here's a link to the story.  Although the campaign's received some understandable skepticism in the blogosphere, I frankly think it's a very strong example of reaching out to loyal, even critical customers for feedback.  And there's real participation in this exercise, far more than most expected.  As I've said repeatedly when I started PlanetFeedback.com, "All feedback is gold, every complaint a gift" -- and I believe this principle holds more than ever. In the case of Starbucks, some terrific ideas are now piping through the system, and site users are rating the best ones.  Like Dell, I also think it's powerful that Starbucks is making the investment to nurture meaningful dialogue and conversation in its own "backyard." Then again, the ultimate "credibility test," of course, will be whether Starbucks management acts on the feedback.  I'd be shocked if they didn't -- there are some really good ones up there.  Let's stay tuned.