Customers taking to the Internet to air their grievances may not be a new phenomenon, but a new Web site is adding a different element into the mix: Product manufacturers and company representatives.

The beta version of www.getsatisfaction.com gives "marketers behind those [discussed] products a chance to be explicitly involved" in the online conversations, according to Springwise, a trend-forecasting newsletter based out of the United Kingdom.

The mantra of the San Francisco-based Web site is simple: "Customer service is the new marketing." The idea is that, by allowing customers and company representatives to discuss product shortcomings (and user errors) openly, all parties win.

"Satisfaction lets consumers participate in conversations about customer service issues specific to particular companies or products," Springwise explains. "Discussions are controlled by the community, free of impersonal contact forms or company censorship. Marketers who choose to join in, meanwhile, are freed from repetitive support tasks and able to engage their customers in a more collaborative way."

Best of all, the site, for now, is free for all participants. And, in case you were wondering, at press time, no specific floral industry-related complaints had been logged on the site.

For more information on other sites facilitating online consumer venting, read E-Brief's past coverage of Yelp.com, and SheSpeaks.com.

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

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