Doc Searls wants to invert the CRM relationship and have customers in control of of more of the relationship:

We need to equip the customer with something that facilitates relating to vendors - and takes some of the relationship burden off the vendors as well.

As he notes elsewhere in his post, a lot of the problem is that we (customers, that is) don't always know what we want. Think back - before mp3 players in general (and iPods in particular) broke onto the scene, who knew they wanted one? There are plenty of products like that, and I see a real problem with having prospective customers voice their inchoate desires.

Additionally, most of the time we don't really want a relationship with a vendor. For instance: I bought a nice digital audio recorder (hand held, for doing in person podcasts) over the summer. I shopped around online, picked what I wanted off Amazon, and ordered it. At no point in time did I have any interest in forming a "relationship" with Olympus (the vendor I ultimately bought from.

But wait - what if I'm in the market again 2 years from now? Well, I barely have the patience to retain critical business information I'm being paid to keep - I'm not about to expend effort to maintain some kind of VRM system. Heck, I couldn't be bothered to keep a calendar until Google made it virtually effortless. I see where Doc is going, but I have doubts as to how many people are willing to expend the effort to get there. Not because it's a bad idea; simply because it would take effort...

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