Clearly, if you are not blogging, you are losing customers you could be gaining, you are losing customers you currently have, you are losing influence you could be wielding, and you are losing out on relationships that could redefine your company. When your customers are talking, you have a responsibility to engage with them.

The great thing about blogging is that it can have business benefits regardless of whether or not you actually have your own blog: you can still listen to your customers and engage with them even on blogs that are not your own. Obviously, having your own blog will allow greater benefits, such as customers being able to communicate directly with you, your being able to create positive experiences on your blog, and having the human voice of your blog become associated with your company.

Every business has a choice to make: either ignore blogging or embrace it. Blogging isn’t going away any more than regular websites are going away. Soon enough, customers will simply take for granted that every company has a blog. Businesses will either participate and engage or ignore and distance themselves.

Increasingly, customers are looking for businesses that do more than simply provide the lowest prices—they are seeking relationships. Companies that continue to cut prices, cut corners, and take customers for granted are engaging in a race to the bottom. On the other hand, businesses that value their customers, engage with them, and make them participants in the company’s future are engaging in a very different type of race—a race to the top. In which race would you rather engage? What happens to companies who win the race to the bottom? Do they survive, thrive, or take a dive? What about companies who win the race to the top of their markets? Time will certainly tell. Either way, customers are taking notice. Companies such as JetBlue and WestJet, both definitely engaging in a race for the top, are beating out competitors as large as United and Delta in the airline industry, primarily because these successful airlines pay attention to their customers though blogging.

Customers are price sensitive only when you are price sensitive. It’s far more valuable to your business and your customers to focus on the unique value you create—the examples of Starbucks, Apple Computers, and BMW don’t have to be unique. Price sensitivity is a creation of companies that follow what the market does; it’s far better to define the market than to serve it.

In every industry, on every continent, companies dedicated to serving customers with an engaging customer-centric experience are facing one common challenge: managing growth. Blogging, listening to blogs, and participating in the conversation are merely extensions of having a customer-centric business. Whenever you value your customers, they will become your company’s greatest evangelists and will do your marketing for you. Blogs can do more than marketing, though; they can aid your product development and public relations, and even open entirely new markets and opportunities.