Nick Wassenberg

As part of a series outlining the purposes, objectives, and tools used by companies worldwide, Business Insider spoke with a group of customer research experts to get the latest trends and issues related to voice of the customer programs. E.G. Insight’s Managing Partner Eric Engwall and Research Analyst Nick Wassenberg provided their points of view about gathering feedback from business-to-business customers.

Excerpt from the article:

Nick Wassenberg, Research Analyst for E.G. Insight, Inc., suggests several factors that could present ideal times to measure what your customers are thinking. For internal factors, such as making the decision to expand into new markets, you would need to perform customer research to understand what those new customers want. And then there are external factors, such as the recession, which might inspire you to find out how it’s affecting your customers...

As technology advances, the methods available to collect customer feedback multiply. With social media sites (blogs, Facebook, and Twitter), web-based surveys, and post-transaction reviews on sites like amazon.com, customers have the opportunity to provide feedback for every purchase they make.

And there is value in that feedback loop. Real-time transaction data can identify tactical issues, widely-shared customer opinions can be used to shape product strategy, and the social web can give businesses new channels to interact with some customer segments.

But if you don’t have a structured process to capture face-to-face feedback from your most important customers, what are you missing?

For large-scale, long-cycle business-to-business accounts, there is an opportunity cost in not making consistent face-to-face customer reviews part of the voice of the...

Originally posted at E.G. Insight's web site: http://www.eginsight.com/news

As a company that helps other organizations listen to their customers, we also make a point to actively gather feedback from our own clients. And when gathering feedback from our clients, we’re often reminded of just how important the act of listening can be to a company’s strategy.

“The Customer Review process transformed this organization into a listening company, helped us shift the focus to the customer, fostered open and honest discussion, and took down lots of silos within our company.”
- President, Global Construction Materials Manufacturer

That is certainly a nice testimonial – and we’re grateful for it – but I think there’s a lesson in it too.

What makes this statement compelling is the language. It’s powerful, genuine, and distinct. Honestly...

(Originally posted by Managing Partner Gary Gerds at http://www.eginsight.com/news)

Think for a moment about the word “relationship.” What does it mean to you?

The dictionary defines relationship as: “Connection, association; involvement; dependent on something else for significance…”

When I think about the strongest relationships I have with my suppliers, two words come to mind: trust and predictability. I trust them to have my best interests in mind whenever we do business; I trust them to treat me fairly; I trust them to deliver, on time, on budget, doing what they say they will do when they say they will. Because I trust them, I can predict their behavior; I know they will come through for me. I trust them to maintain our good relationship.

Here’s another way to think about relationships: In this day of product and price parity, the one thing that you have...