By Karen Axelton

050211_5303_1912_These days it’s easier than ever to keep tabs on what your customers are saying about you and get their feedback on your brand, products and services. You could track their Tweets, set a Google Alert, survey them on your Facebook Fan page and read comments on your blog. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Lots of experts and entrepreneurs swear by the idea of asking customers for guidance on developing new products and services or what they want from your company. In fact, there are many who claim they’ve relied on customer input to tell them what to do every step of the way. That’s why I was so intrigued by this contrarian post on Mark Cuban’s blog.

“Why You Should NEVER Listen to Your Customers” tells Cuban’s story of a business he knew that was going great–until they started asking customers for feedback on every little thing. By allowing customers to direct the development of their business, they put themselves in a “revolving door” of constantly playing catch-up–and established themselves firmly in second place.

“Your customers can tell you the things that are broken,” Cuban says. “Listen to them. But they won’t create the future roadmap for your product or service. That’s your job.”

What do you think about Cuban’s advice?