Customer Councils: A Powerful Source for Voice of Customer Insights

Posted by Ernan Roman on April 11, 2011

0 comments | 1010 reads

THE PROBLEM: You are a small company and cannot afford a full-blown Voice of Customer, (VOC) research program, yet you need VOC guidance.

THE SOLUTION: Create a Customer Council as a low cost way to obtain VOC feedback and identify opportunities or threats. Implemented properly, the insights will always improve bottom line performance.

A Customer Council is an ad-hoc committee that can include your best customers, lost customers and prospective customers. It is important to include a cross-functional team representing key areas from your company. The most effective Customer Councils include the company’s senior management plus some front-line service people who actually work with customers on a daily basis.

Chris McCann, CEO of 1-800-Flowers, emphasized the strategic importance of such a group in a recent interview with us: He said: “From its earliest days, this company has been founded on the principle of building the relationship first, and doing business second ... One of the things I’m proudest of has been launching our own customer panel. This group got its start when I asked for the e-mail addresses of our very best customers. I then e-mailed each of them, and asked for his or her help. I said, ‘I am looking for something—a group that I can turn to when I have questions.... You can offer me suggestions at any time, just by picking up the phone and calling me. Would you agree to do this?’ People said ‘yes,’ and suddenly we had a customer panel.” The panel has become a critical strategic resource for 1-800-Flowers, one that gives McCann (among other things) valuable, relevant, and rapid input on new product and service ideas. It also delivers referrals!

Another innovative, revenue-generating use of the Customer Council concept takes advantage of video and social media tools to share customer testimonials generated at these gatherings.

Visit the Ascend Worldwide site and you can find (and share) YouTube videos of actual C-level decision makers, all members of Ascend's Customer Council, offering their own personal experiences about doing business with the aerospace consultant. This is an extremely powerful marketing tactic. Don't be surprised when one of your competitors starts posting videos like this!

TRY THIS:

Follow Chris McCann's lead. Get the e-mail addresses of a group of your best customers. Reach out to them and ask them for help, guidance, and support on an ongoing basis.

Ask members of your Customer Council questions like this:

How can we improve the quality of our service or product?
How can we make it easier for you to do business with us?
How can we increase the likelihood that you will do business with us again?

Republished with author's permission from original post by Ernan Roman.

Ernan Roman

Ernan Roman is President of Ernan Roman Direct Marketing and the industry pioneer who created 3 transformational methodologies: Integrated Direct Marketing, Opt-In Marketing, and Voice of Customer Relationship Research. Ernan was recently inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame. Clients include Microsoft, NBC Universal, Disney, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. His fourth and latest book on marketing best practices is titled: Voice of the Customer Marketing: A Proven 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay.

About Ernan Roman |
Connect:

Categories:

Voice of Customer

1010 reads
Print
Email

0 comments »

Post new comment

Your name: *

E-mail: *

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Homepage:

Subject:

Comment: *

Input format

Filtered HTML

Allowed HTML tags: <a> <img> <hr> <table> <tr> <td> <th><ul> <ol> <li> </li><blockquote> <colspan> <rowspan><object>
Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Images can be added to this post.

Post

Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Images can be added to this post.

More information about formatting options

Notify me when new comments are posted

All comments

Replies to my comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

What code is in the image?: *

Enter the characters shown in the image.

MarketPlace

Global Customer Experience Management (CEM) Certification Program

[May 30-31, Frankfurt; July 25-26, Hong Kong] An internationally recognized program with proven track record of success - being run for 34 times in 13 cities with attendees from 50 countries, the program is developed based on the U.S. patent-pending Branded CEM Method which aims to drive customer loyalty and brand differentiation with quantifiable business results. Limited offer: USD300 early bird discount.

Join us on May 29th in New York City. Stuart Ryder, SVP, Mobile Research Lead for Ipsos IOTX & Roxana Strohmenger, a leading Forrester analyst, will be in attendance to share best practices and new trends in mobile market research.

[June 12, Sir Francis Drake Hotel] Gregson Siu, Vice President, Ariba Business Operations, Ariba and Bob Thompson, CustomerThink, will be in attendance to share best practices, new trends and latest research to help you develop your customer experience program.

Social Networking and sCRM International Congress in Colombia

[June 25-26, Bogota] Thirteen international thought leaders will present, from different perspectives, the trends, the uses, and the magic - as well as the reality - of Social Networking and how it impacts the way customers are doing/will do business.

Driving ROI With VoC

Walker has identified multiple ways to measure ROI – there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. This paper will address each and conclude with some recommendations to help B-to-B practitioners evaluate which ROI approach will work best for their particular business need.