(Originally posted at http://www.eginsight.com/news)

Over the past few weeks, the media has been buzzing about the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer study (details here). It measures and reports the level of trust the general public has in entities like corporations, government, even friends and family. Some of the results are unexpected, such as the rise globally in the credibility people see in messages directly from the CEO and the lack of trust people have in their “inner circle” social network.

Some have critiqued the study, others have praised it, but it’s hard to deny the fact that the last two years have shaken the public’s trust in business leaders, especially in the financial services, automotive, and aerospace industries.

Not surprisingly, this breakdown of trust has also happened in business-to-business relationships. Organizations worldwide are doing more with less. Fewer resources often leads to declines in quality and delivery performance as well as less interaction with key customers.

The end result? Less trust.

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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, it’s the exact type of thing we’d love to hear from all our clients. (And the kind of quote we’d like our prospects to hear.)

But we probably wouldn’t have described the Customer Review process quite that way. It took a client to give us a fresh way to look at both our services and ourselves.

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Originally posted at www.eginsight.com/news

When thinking about business-to-business customers, we rarely think about pizza chains – but maybe we should. Consider Domino’s Pizza: Advances in technology have helped improve their internal communication, shortened the time it takes to fulfill orders, and allow you to order a pizza online. Technology has been a huge part of Domino’s value proposition.

But they haven’t stopped there. In 2009, Domino's tore a page out of the UPS (www.ups.com/tracking/tracking.html) playbook to let their customers track their orders in real time. That’s right, using Domino’s Web-based “Pizza Tracker,” you can follow your pizza from order to prep, bake, quality check, and finally delivery. (To see the Pizza Tracker in action, follow this link: www.dominos.com/home/tracker/pizzatracker.jsp)

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(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 that competitors can’t duplicate are your relationships. Your relationships with key customers are unique.

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(originally posted at www.eginsight.com/news

I’m not saying sales and marketing leaders in the business-to-consumer (B2C) space have it easy. They don’t. But they often do have relatively easy access to meaningful data. Collecting information from customer transactions and investigating trends has been aided by scanner data and mountains of empirical results. Do you want to know about the latest trends in consumer preferences for salty snacks? No problem, there’s a study that will tell you.

For business-to-business (B2B) customers, the game is different. The complex relationships between firms result in multiple layers of influencers and decision makers. Mining the gold nuggets from these interactions can be difficult, but finding out what truly creates value has tremendous rewards.

Customer-focused organizations are discovering that different ways of gathering B2B customer feedback can unlock value, stimulate innovation, and drive loyalty. Savvy leaders are learning that bending – or breaking – the research rules can be their fastest, easiest, and most cost-effective route to success.
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(Originally posted by Gary Gerds at www.eginsight.com/news)

There is no shortage of salespeople competing for their customers’ time and share of wallet. There is no shortage of noise and clutter in the system; everyone is vying for attention in a difficult economy. Some companies are succeeding; others are failing at an alarming rate.

Companies that are succeeding are doing so because they offer specialized products or services unique to the marketplace, or—and this is more likely—because of the kind of relationships they have with their most valuable customers. These companies meet a need for their customers. They do something no one else can do or they are perceived as being unique.

Trusted Advisors stand alone atop the Customer Relationship Hierarchy as shown here:
E.G. Insight Relationship Hierarchy

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In the September issue of Inc. Magazine , Alden Mills, founder of Perfect Fitness shares a part of his experience with Navy SEAL training:

“They’d say, ‘OK, it’s a four mile run.’ I’d run so hard, I’d throw up at the finish line. Then they’d say, ‘Now it’s a 10-mile run. Keep running.’”

Mills used his training experience as a lesson in perseverance, but it also provides a warning about your customer’s expectations. The fact is, the things you’ve done in the past for your customer might have made them satisfied then but it might not be enough to satisfy them today and tomorrow. From your customer’s perspective, the bar almost always goes up as your relationship matures.

In other words: Meeting your customers’ core requirements may have been enough to get their business, but it may not be enough to keep it.

This might seem like an uphill battle, but there are some companies that actually use this escalation effect to their advantage. By listening and gathering information in three distinct ways, they build sustainable competitive advantage. Here’s how:

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As noted in a a previous article, the current global economy presents a huge opportunity for business-to-business sales organizations to actively listen to their customers. But there are some common traps that organizations fall into when gathering customer feedback. Don’t let your best intentions send the wrong message; avoid the following Seven “Deadly” Sins of a Voice of the Customer Program:

#1: Pride – Not making customer feedback a priority
I have yet to meet anyone that makes customers unhappy or dissatisfied on purpose. But there are moments for all of us when the customer feels like they aren’t the primary focus. These moments can have a huge impact on your customers’ opinions about you in the present and the future. But you might be too wrapped up in other things to even notice their frustration.

Avoid it by having disciplined, consistent approach to listening to your customers. Let them vent and you’ll probably hear things you were in the dark about.

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For some time, it’s been popular to simplify the customer feedback reporting process to three colors: Red, Yellow and Green. If it works for traffic signals, why wouldn’t it work for customer feedback?

Green is great. Green means no worries, no improvement needed, a customer you can count on. Unless you are gathering inaccurate information, asking the wrong questions to the wrong people – the people who are your friends instead of your foes, your allies instead of your adversaries, the people you already know instead of the people you want to know. Maybe things are fine, or maybe not.

Yellow represents caution and opportunity. Yellow means potential storm clouds are brewing, problems exist. Yellow means make the correct improvements completely and immediately. Yellow says fix this account before things get worse. Yellow means save this customer; allocate your scarce resources effectively; fix the problem now, or the color will turn to….

Red. An at-risk customer who is probably moving down the path of finding an alternative supplier or likely has already found one – but has not yet told you about their decision. Red accounts usually land on the senior executive’s desk. Red accounts demand immediate decisive action. Red accounts cause sleepless nights, missed forecasts, indigestion. Red is trouble.

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THE CLIENT
A Fortune 500 adhesive manufacturer supplying products to automotive manufacturers around the world.

THE CHALLENGE
It’s no secret that in the automotive industry, quality, innovation, and cost reduction are critical. Customers don’t just want continuous quality improvement, innovation, and cost reduction, they demand it. So, for an adhesives manufacturer that sells to automakers, the search was on to identify an effective process that would help them listen to their customers’ specific cost, innovation, and quality concerns.

But what was the best way to build a global voice of the customer process?

How could they listen to customers on a global scale and translate that feedback into the right actions?

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