A thought occurred to me as I was doing some research today.  Why is it so hard to do something consistently over a long period of time?  Then I had a second thought.  Hey, I have a blog.  I'll throw this chum out to all of you and see who bites.

So, the first question came from research I was doing on Trip Advisor about a hotel I'm staying at this weekend. Overall the customer reviews of the property were good.  49% rated it "very good" or better; where 26% rated it "poor" or worse.  And for a budget "motel" style property, I thought that was respectable.  So, after reading all the positive reviews, I click over to the "terrible" comments.

Of the 8 comments left between 2007 and 2010, exactly one had a response from the property General Manager; the most recent.  So, then I started trying to analyze the pattern of timing and dates around the complaints.  They did seem to be clustered by complaint type and date.  But, the point is, I shouldn't have had to think that hard in order to determine the value of those comments in making my decision.

While it's admirable that the GM responded to one customer, he left 7 others, and everyone like me who read them, dangling out there, open to assume the most wildest of scenarios.  Even if management or in fact ownership of the property had changed hands, there was an opportunity to go back to these other comments and offer the Trip Advisor visitor some sort of explanation; to tell the other side of the story.

So, whether its Twitter, Facebook, your blog, your church, local community organization or your customers (oh yea...or your marriage!), relationships take a dedication and commitment to consistent engagement; consistent nurturing, care and feeding.  No, not because if you don't, your Klout score will drop.  But, because consistency is the only real path to success in anything.