Consumers: Talk to me or meet your doom?

"If you don't join the conversations customers are having about you, your brands, and the things that matter to your brands, then you're dead." This is a pretty powerful quote from a recent interview with Federated Media's John Battelle.

At this point, statements from experts like this shouldn't shock anyone. Social media has become the great equalizer as described in the youtube clip "Conversational Marketing" by providing a communication platform for consumers. Personally, it's unimaginable for me not comment about recent purchases either on Twitter, forums or even the company site itself. Although I've never truly had a "conversation" with a company, I appreciate the one's that would be willing to hear me out versus the ones who don't. To see a great example of this check out My Starbucks where Starbucks actively engages in conversation with their customers to better their products.

For those companies still catching up with "conversations", I truly fear for their survival. They are missing customer insight, losing relevance and most importantly not building relationships. Although not everyone wants to have conversations with companies - see Jeff the situation blog post - I still feel its important for businesses to engage their customers.

How do you feel about companies that don't engage in conversations? Would this affect your relationship or willingness to buy from them?