Bob Thompson

Over the past 10 years, perhaps more, I've been following the so-called Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) industry. Getting, and acting upon, customer feedback is one of the most important habits of customer-centric firms.

I've always been mystified why the CRM industry didn't embrace these sorts of solutions, despite all the rhetoric about customer loyalty. Thankfully, EFM found a home in the burgeoning market for Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions. And in recent years EFM solutions have expanded dramatically to include more channels, use text analytics on verbatims or social feedback, and even connect to CRM for customer history.

And yet, the problem remains that most companies don't systematically act on customer feedback -- less than 50% according to Forrester Research. That's why I've come to define Voice of Customer 2.0...

I know, that "2.0" thing has been overdone. It's been used to signify the next generation of the Internet (Web 2.0), collaboration (Enterprise 2.0) and much more.

When it comes to Voice of Customer (VoC), however, I'd like to take a different tack this time. It's true that VoC efforts have changed in recent years from being mainly about surveys to incorporating more types of feedback (behavioral, social, etc.). See the 6 feedback dimensions in this diagram I created a couple of years ago.

But that's not really what "next-generation" VoC is about. No, VoC 2.0 is about actually getting business value from customer feedback.

In our most recent CX Forum webinar, this issue was brought to light early on by Claire Sporton of Confirmit in this...

Last year a ClickFox survey found Apple scored highest in brand loyalty.

This year, a similar survey found Apple once again in the top spot. More than one in four (28%) voted Apple as the top brand consumer can't live without. None of the other top 5 (Starbucks, Google, Microsoft and Amazon) cracked 4%.

Asked why they picked that brand, consumers picked these as the top 3 "crucial" factors: brand quality (60%), ease of use (46%) and features (40%). However, these overall results are probably skewed by Apple's dominance as a favorite brand.

OK, so what? These results look much like other loyalty/brand surveys. I discussed the survey with ClickFox VP of Marketing Jeff Gossman, who said these findings stood out:

A few years ago, my family experienced frequent power outages at our home during bad storms. One time, the power to a sump pump cut out when we needed it most. Result: $5,000 of water damage. Needless to say, that day I had some choice words for our electricity provider, Pacific Gas & Electric.

Unfortunately, if a utility doesn't do its job, U.S. consumers can't pick up the phone and easily switch to another supplier. The U.S. energy market is essentially a bunch of regional monopolies, with regulations imposed by federal and state government to make sure customers are not mistreated.

Intense competition is the best incentive to innovate and provide great customer experiences. So you can understand why utilities are not top of mind when I think of customer-centric success stories. I searched PG&E's 2012 annual report...