Customers are declaring war on the corporate world.  Forget CRM, the green shoots of company management are sprouting.  There was more evidence this week when the national union of students used a Facebook community to galvanise customer activism and force HSBC to remove newly introduced fees on student bank accounts.

This comes on top of Paul English’s internet site with provides customers with the keys to sail effortlessly through IVR systems to reach a real person in the call centres of companies like Comet, Dell, Egg, Halifax, Sky, Tesco, and O2.  Interest in personal knowledge banks - where customers keep control of their own data and give permission to companies to access it - is growing amongst suppliers.  Whilst an increasing number of business customers are including questions like “Is there a process by which you assign the importance of client relationships” and “How can you demonstrate your commitment to our goals”, in their invitations to tender.

We must start listening to customers, otherwise customers will band together share information and problem solve between themselves,  as blogs and workspaces increasingly allow them to do.  Word of mouth is changing the balance of power, and, the very essence of the marketing model.