The bad news: A lot of companies still use formal mechanisms like focus groups or surveys to find out what their customers think. The good news: A significant number solicit input in a variety of informal ways.

Here are the results of our first online poll:

How closely does your company work with its end customers?

• Our end customers are integrally involved in helping us design our products and/or services -- 18%

• We informally solicit ideas and feedback from end customers through many avenues (online, e-mail, by phone, in person, etc.) -- 31%

• We solicit ideas and feedback from our end customers through focus groups -- 22%

• We formally survey our end customers on a regular basis -- 20%

• We are too far removed from our end customers to generate usable feedback -- 9%

The right answer, in the N = 1 world, is #1: involving customers in product and/or services design. Unfortunately, less than a fifth of our respondents have gone that far in working with their customers. The good news, though, is that a significant number -- almost a third -- interact with their customers in a variety of ways. That's a big step in the right direction: customer interaction should be a constant and evolving process.

Most respondents -- more than 40% -- say their companies still use the tried-and-true customer feedback mechanisms: focus groups and surveys. That's good -- like publicity, there's no such thing as bad customer interaction -- but it's also bad, because N = 1 tells us that customer interaction has to be so much more than simple feedback. Feedback suggests a wall between the customer and the company -- a wall made manifest in the typical focus group. The N = 1 formula demands that that wall be removed ("Mr. CEO, tear down this wall!") for the sake of direct interaction leading to value being co-created between customer and company.

The best news is that less than 10% of respondents think their companies are too far removed from their end customers to interact with them in any pragmatic manner. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you think that, you are doomed.

That's the harsh lesson of the N = 1 business environment.

Why do you think more companies don't interact directly with their customers? Too difficult? No precedent? Insufficient ROI?