The first time we saw this implemented in public was the Dell’s Ideastorm website, where the customers were able to submit their feature and product requests. This ultimately resulted in a Linux box being produced, a pretty drastic change from their long term relationship with Microsoft.
[The future of corporate websites enable customers to submit, define, and vote for next-generation products in collaboration with product teams]
Starbucks has seen the benefits that Dell had, and appears to be using the same Sales Force feature that allows customers to submit, discuss and vote for features, see My Starbucks Ideas.
You can:
See the top rated ideas (punch cards, wifi, are among the top) Or submit your own idea, I just suggested that ‘rent an office’ be available at select stores See which ideas get taken up and become products on their blog (FYI: Turn on comments)
What should we expect? A few of these ideas to be put into action, with great fanfare. An increased dialog between company and marketplace, and expect white label social networking sites to start offering these same features. (email me when you see one)
This is just the start folks, where social computing (where individuals who participate socially to build something greater) work together to craft better products, services and experiences for companies. To me, this is one of the ultimate goals of web strategy, as we move away from the irrelevant corporate website.