One of the common challenges we hear from customer strategists is centered around taking action. People will say things like,
"How do I get people to pay attention?"
"When I share results from our customer survey research people are engaged, but after the meeting, nothing happens."
"Our leadership team says they are committed, but they aren't engaged."
Creating a customer-focused culture has many challenges, and taking action appears to be at the top of the list.
One of the first steps to taking action is goal setting. There are many different formats and criteria that companies use for goal setting. But, I was recently reminded of one criteria that often gets overlooked - "Excitement."
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Seth Godin recently wrote a blog titled, "Avoiding false metrics." His point is one that will resonate with Customer Experience and Voice of Customer (VoC) professionals.
The premise of his blog is that a metric should be accurate and aligned with your goals. There are many different examples of customer metrics that are neither. Consider these two examples:
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While Channel Partners are customers too, unlike the traditional customer, partners are able to provide a unique perspective. When it comes to Voice of Partner versus Voice of Customer survey research, consider these four differences:
1 - Many Channel Partners sell competing products and services giving them a unique perspective on what drives customer purchase decisions. Their input can help companies understand what causes a customer to purchase one product over another competing product.
2 - In a similar manner, OEMs can use partner input to understand what drives...
Walker recently set out to answer the question, "What drives partner preference?" Or, asked a different way, "Why do partners recommend one product or brand over others?"
As we analyzed data from more than 20,000 partner surveys across multiple IT OEMs, one of the findings that emerged is partners have similar needs as customers.
As we reviewed the drivers of partner preference and compared them to the drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty, we noticed some similarities:
Customer strategists continue to look for creative ways to share their message and to inform others. They are looking for ways to demonstrate why customer focus is important to the business strategy and how customers feel about the organization.
The communication gets complex because the audience is varied, ranging from external groups like customers and shareholders, to internal teams like sales managers, account managers, product developers, product marketing, service reps, executives...the list goes on and on.
When this infographic came through my twitter feed, I couldn't help but think of different ways customer strategists can use this type of an approach to reach their audience. Here are some of the things that came to mind:
Communications to customers: Customers want to know that their feedback is being put to use. An infographic can be used to share some...
What do the cloud, social media, and lean innovation have in common? Each are impacting voice of the customer programs and changing the way we measure, manage, and deliver an exceptional and differentiated customer experience.
Cloud computing: The cloud changes the way customers buy products. Customers move from product ownership to product subscription. In doing this, the switching barriers are lessened for the customer and the company is rewarded with recurring revenue. Cloud-based companies need to adapt their voice of the customer program to focus on predicting customer renewals.
One common challenge customer-focused leadership faces is knowing the right question to answer or problem to solve. This isn't just a challenge reserved for customer strategists. It is a challenge faced by all leaders.
In the movie Moneyball, this challenge surfaces during a meeting where the Oakland A scouts discuss how they are going to replace their most valuable player. The discussion went something like this:
Scout 1: "We're trying to solve a problem here Billy."
Billy Beane: "Not like this you're not. You're not even looking at the problem."
Scout 1: "Look Billy. We all understand what the problem is."
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The cloud is changing a variety of customer interactions, one of which is the purchase process. We've seen a shift from buying, to renting, and now to subscribing.
Consider movie viewing as an example. Years ago, to watch a movie at home, we bought a VHS or DVD. Shortly thereafter, we went to Blockbuster and rented the movie. Today, many subscribe to Netflix, where they pay a monthly fee and get unlimited rentals.
This change is happening across many industries, including those providing business-to-business products and services. In the report titled, "Sizing the Cloud," Forrester predicts the "global market for cloud computing will grow from $40.7 billion in 2011 to more than $241 billion in 2020."
This shift is impacting the role of customer strategy consulting. Historically, customer strategy...
When sharing results from your customer survey research, have you been asked, "So, are we doing good or bad?"
When designing a voice of the customer (VoC) program, one of the best practices is to share some type of perspective when presenting results.
To do this, consider one of these four options:
Add benchmark questions to your survey: Many companies have a couple of questions asking the customer to evaluate a benchmark company. This is an ideal approach for many because it focuses on the perceptions of your customers and allows you to compare what they think about you versus another company.
Benchmark against yourself: Companies can answer the “good or bad” question by looking at key segments within their business. For this approach, identify the customer segments with high performance scores and use those as the benchmark. The benefit of this approach is the "best-in-class" score is most...
"Of course, I can have all the data I want to have—but I still have to communicate it to our players....And they have to utilize it," said Butler University men's basketball coach, Brad Stevens, in this interview with McKinsey Global Institute.
Coach Stevens advice should resonate with any customer strategist. His best practices include:
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