Someone told me about a humorous exchange between a British ship in distress and the German coast guard. I doubt its true, but it went something like this:
British ship: ‚ÄúMayday…Mayday…We are sinking‚Äù
German Coast Guard: “Halo. This is the German coast guard, what are you sinking about?”
Miscommunications can happen. But the important thing is that the coast guard was listening. Many companies aren’t even listening to customers that are trying to talk to them.
Do a twitter search for @bose and you’ll see customers trying to engage the company on twitter. And what do they get in response. Silence.
Twitter and facebook are the new dial tone. Your customers expect you to be there.
Saying you weren’t listening is not an acceptable excuse.
Update: Turns out there's a really funny video version of the joke here. (Thanks @jgrubbs)
Jon Dale 
Great post!! The concept of listening to your customers is what the book “groundswell” is all about. My favorite quote from that book is, “your brand is whatever your customers say it is.” I think one of the best tools for businesses to use to listen to their customers in addition to twitter and facebook is Get Satisfaction: http://getsatisfaction.com/
P.S. Here is the link to the “What are you sinking about?” commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOTpIVxji8