Small-Town Web; The Internet has been accused of killing main street, but in many waysit is leading the revival of a nostalgic service ethic.

Byline: John Chambers (Chambers is president and CEO of Cisco Systems.)

There was a time when local merchants greeted you when you entered a shop. There was no need to place your order--they already knew what you wanted based on months or years of previous purchases. Instead, shoptalk focused on families, politics or Friday night's football game. Shopping was a social event, something you enjoyed. In most communities, this sort of customer intimacy is a distant memory. Shopping malls, superstores, warehouse discounters and population growth are typically blamed for its demise. Some even accuse the Internet of contributing to the death of personalized, small-town commerce--replacing bricks and mortar with clicks and orders.

I think this criticism has it exactly backward. While the playing field has changed, customer service has never been more important for business success, and Internet technology is becoming the customer-service backbone for businesses around the globe. Ironically, the Internet--once viewed as undermining the mom-and-pop business--is introducing a new small-town commerce experience based on high-level interactions between sellers and buyers. These interactions can significantly boost both productivity and revenues, in addition to increasing customer satisfaction.

In simplest terms, interactions are based on information accumulated from previous exchanges between businesses and their customers. For example, I have been eating at two restaurants near our San Jose, California, headquarters for so many years, the employees have learned my tastes and interests, from my favorite drinks to my preferred entrees. They tailor my experience there accordingly. This is a classic interaction based on information collected from earlier exchanges. If I visit the same restaurants during a trip to New York, where I'm not a regular, there's no reason for them to store my information. This is a simple transaction and the experience is, to say the least, quite different. I finish my meal and leave. Today, companies are building customer relationships by using the ...