This is a guest post by Sarah Worsham, CEO & Web Strategist at Sazbean Consulting and blogging at Sazbean.com. Sarah is passionate about helping companies reach their business goals by using the web effectively. Sarah provides guidance through Internet Marketing, Strategy & Business consulting.

Sometimes the best ideas are actually old ones which are brought back with a new twist (or they were just forgotten and seem new again).

Ever heard of Osteopathy?  Me either.  But it was developed here in the United States almost 150 years ago.  It’s a fairly big practice in Canada and Europe.  Here’s a short description from Wikipedia:

In most countries, osteopathy is a form of complementary medicine, emphasizing a holistic approach and the skilled use of a range of manual and physical treatment interventions in the prevention and treatment of disease. In practice, this most commonly relates to musculoskeletal problems such as back and neck pain. Osteopathic principles teach that treatment of the musculoskeletal system (bones, muscles and joints) facilitates the recuperative powers of the body. – Wikipedia

Have you been to a doctor and they’ve dismissed your symptoms as non-important or they’ll treat only specific symptoms?  American medicine is very symptom and specialty focused.  But, often something in one part of the body is affecting things elsewhere.  Getting a whole world (body) view can help more effectively treat the problem and lead to a much healthier patient.

So why has this practice, which was created here, fallen out of practice?  Who knows?  But I think it’s something that would be beneficial both to patients and to doctors.  The US, the birthplace of this practice, is starting to see a resurgence in interest in this type of medicine.  (By the way, if you have a chance, spend a few minutes with Helen Wilson-Welch to learn more about this fascinating practice – disclaimer – she’s my client and I’m hers).

A long time ago, most humans lived in small villages and towns – where everyone knew everyone else and all required goods and services were provided, sold, bought and traded.  In the town’s general store, people would gather for the news and shopkeepers knew everything about their customers – anticipating future purchases and provided exceptional customer service (even though the customer was pretty much stuck with what they could offer).

Today, the Internet has once again made it easy for companies to communicate with their customers – and for customers to communicate with each other.  Exceptional customer service is once again important.

What’s something old that you can make new again?