A famous commercial from my childhood was for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Two kids – one holding a jar of chocolate, the other holding a jar of peanut butter – collided and created a new product. It was the birth of the peanut butter cup – "the perfect mix.”

Such is the same with Web 2.0 technologies, which primarily deliver collaboration and communication capabilities. By now, most tech-savvy people have been exposed to blogs, Wikipedia, Facebook, Second Life and several other tools that are finding their way into everyday life.

These capabilities are also forming "a new mix" in the customer contact and servicing market, both in planned and unplanned ways. For example, many companies are providing their own brand enhancing-blogs. Bill Marriott's is one of the better known blogs, and hopefully ours is gaining good traction, too.

More importantly, these tools are becoming excellent sources of customer insight and feedback. A few weeks ago, BusinessWeek revealed how companies like Dell are leveraging these Web 2.0 technologies as a way to gather real-time feedback and improve customer service.

In a recent conversation with a leading service provider, I mentioned one consumer site that repeatedly took the company to task and asked how chronic issues mentioned on this site were addressed. To my amazement, the president of one of the company’s largest divisions actually spent several hours chatting with customers on the site to both understand and explain improvements face-to-face (or pretty close). Though he couldn't address everything, I give him a lot of credit for putting himself out there.

Sound familiar? Is your company also utilizing Web 2.0 technologies to get closer to your customers? We'd like to know!