Is Reverse Marketing in both marketing worlds?

As I get more and more involved with the true aspects of internet marketing, I see a clash between traditional marketing tactics and ideals vs. online marketing strategy. Should there be a clash between the two? I would like to think that maybe in an ideal marketing environment, you have a nice mixture of both.
For example: analyzing consumer behavior - any true marketing manager will attest that being in touch with the consumer is very important (although very rare in most companies) for strategic planning. So what is the best method of staying in touch?

One of my upper-level managers would argue that actually talking to the people, calling customers when they make orders, or getting real conversations with the people is the best way to analyze their behavior.
Naturally, since I work at a business that is strictly eCommerce, a large part of the commerce platform is web analytics. The business analyst would argue that the wonderful software (Omniture is pretty dang cool) we pay for can get us the same, if not better, information than actually talking to the consumer.
So naturally, the two confront on where to spend the most time and money, and which method will produce results....etc. We all know how that goes.
I seem to think of a happy medium between the two. Reverse marketing is marketing from ground level- the consumer. I think that any face-to-face time can lead to valuable feedback and create great customer loyalty. But, I also believe that analyzing the consumer's behavior while they shop is best done through tracking software and depp analysis.
Why do I think that? I think it is truly the only unbiased way to track true consumer behavior.

Here is my free plug for Omniture. Omniture clearly leads the web analytics software industry. Yes, Google providing free analytics is giving all web analytic establishments a run for their money, but even a great free product cannot compare to the depth and knowledgebase that Omniture can provide. It can work wonders for your company.

So I gues the point being that I think you need both- one for behavioral analysis, and hte other for true relationship building and customer rentetion.