Two way communication

 Automation defeats the purpose of the online marketplace. It takes away the potential for dialogue between the producer and consumer. Automation goes against every aspect of establishing a customer base or building a relationship with your customers. To me it goes against any successful businesses model. Businesses have numerous social mediums at their fingertips that they can use to listen to and talk with their customers to find out what they want from them. If you find out that the majority of your customers are not satisfied with product or service X listen to why they don't like it and ask them what they would like you to do about it. Humans aren't mind readers, so listen and ask--communicate. The web provides us with the opportunity to communicate as if we were sitting next to each other so take advantage and start a conversation.