Many companies have started to realize the value of engaging with their customers through ethnography, e-mail, blogging and other methods; cScape’s Customer Engagement Report testifies to that reality. But as Pete Mortensen writes in a sidebar to the report, quicker online methods are no substitute for real empathy, and too often customer outreach turns into junk mail. Treat your customers like people, however, and the world will beat a path to your door.