Listener Question On VoC Power

Jeannie Walters 0:00

We continue to get outstanding questions from listeners just like you. We got one this week from Jorge.

Listener Question 0:08

This question was submitted to us by a listener. Hi Jeannie, this is Jorge Oliva Ramos. I've been thinking about voice of customer not only as a listening system, but as a potential decision infrastructure for organizations. In your experience, what distinguishes companies that successfully embed customer insights into everyday decision making from those where voice of customer remains mainly a reporting or feedback exercise?

Make Insights Everyone’s Responsibility

Governance Ownership And Closing The Loop

Lead The Change And Next Steps

Jeannie Walters 0:32

Great question. And I bet a lot of you out there can really relate to this. Sometimes customer experience work gets sort of relegated to simply listening. We are making sure we're tapping into customer feedback, we're asking for it, we're requesting it, we're reporting on it. But that's where the work and the effort kind of end. And the organizations who turn customer experience into a winning business strategy, they do this differently. So instead of treating this like a reporting exercise, they do really talk about customer feedback and insights as decision-making tools. But the most important thing, in my opinion, is that we can't always just decide based on customer feedback. We have to understand what is our overall mission here. What is our overall goal? How can this help our organization? Because if we don't have that lens in combination with the customer feedback, then we might just be doing things for the whims of customers and not seeing those results that we need to get as organizations. So there are a couple of things that I think organizations who do this well have. And the first one is mindset, making sure that everybody's aligned around, okay, what are we trying to do for customers. What are their expectations? What is it that we are willing to invest in in order to improve the customer experience? If we're just collecting a lot of ideas from feedback, if we're hearing a lot of complaints, this is where things become very ad hoc and fragmented. What we want to do is align around a centralized view of what the experience could be and why that's important, not just for our customers, but for our organization. We do this with something called a customer experience mission statement to try to get everybody around, this is who we are, no matter what. Because if we don't have that lens when we're actually looking at feedback, then it's very easy to get caught up in one-off things that might feel disjointed. So you might have a great complaint about marketing and you fix that, but you don't have that unified view over what is that holistic journey that we're trying to achieve. And so you don't pull that throughout the process. Well, that leads to disjointed customer journeys. That means that their experience is inconsistent and inconsistency erodes trust. So we really have to tie this all together in a proactive way, not just reacting to the feedback that we hear and report. So we want to make sure that we have the mindset that we are who we are, we know what those expectations are, and we know what this will do for the organization. We start there and then we react to the feedback. And then the other part of this is really understanding, as part of that mindset, that this isn't a customer experience team issue, that they are might be responsible for actually collecting the feedback and reporting on it. But they are not responsible for actually changing the customer experience. A lot of times, what has to happen requires subject matter expertise. It requires coalition building because we can't deliver a product that is better if we're not on the product team. We can't actually figure out how to improve delays in shipping if we're not very connected to the whole distribution, supply chain, all of that. So this has to be a holistic mindset about what the customer experience is for the entire organization. And then, of course, the second thing I see that organizations do really well when they're doing this well is connecting those insights to decisions. We have a lot of dashboards, don't we? And reports and we talk about voice of the customer and we talk about investing and the different tools that we use around it. But if we're talking about it as its own thing, if voice of the customer lives on an island, then it's really hard to have that impact the decisions that will have an impact on the customer experience and on your business results, frankly. So we have to look at how do these insights align with creating value, creating value directly related to product design decisions, to operational changes, to communication strategies, to the partners we select. If we are not including the voice of the customer insights that we're gathering, not just what they're telling us, but the insights, if we're not including those in those bigger decisions, then we're essentially saying we're listening to you over here, customer, but none of that goes outside of this voice of the customer team. That doesn't really serve you or your customers. So getting that decision-making muscle woven in so that every single organizational team gets those reports on voice of the customer and understands the part they play in it. They understand who to ask about more information. They understand how to raise their hand and say, you know what? I would love to know more about what customers are thinking here because this is what we're thinking about. Once we start tying all those decisions together, real magic happens. Customers get more of what they want in a faster, more responsive way. They get happier because we're listening to them and giving them exactly what they are expecting or more. And that is better for our organization. But we have to make sure everybody understands that this is a win-win-win. And if they don't understand that, if they are not held accountable or asked to influence the customer experience, then they are going to look to the customer experience team that is simply collecting and reporting on this feedback as the people who are causing the problem. I've seen this so many times. Unfortunately, customer experience folks, you've seen this too. It's called shoot the messenger, right? And so we have to be really careful about making sure that when we're reporting, we might be giving recommendations or suggestions or trying to influence that decision making. But we have to do it in a way that gets other people on board with understanding what's in it for them. Why would they care about this? It's because it will make their job easier, or it's because they're going to get that bonus that we all want if we can achieve this. So focus on those business value outcomes, not just what it will do for the customer. And then really, this is where we have to put our money where our mouth is. We have to show up and put in the effort in the right places. This is where discipline comes in. We need clear ownership over these issues. We need to make sure there are consistent processes, not just in collecting the feedback and gathering the insights, but reporting out on what are we doing about this, on closing the loop with those customers, all of those things. We need real governance around this. And if we treat it like a side project or something that we're doing on the side of our desk, as they like to say, then we're not giving it the credence that it needs to get the attention and the influence and the accountability that we need throughout the organization. This is everyone's role. Everyone has to play a role because the customer feels it. They feel it when somebody in finance is doing something that makes their job a little harder. They feel it when supply chain isn't communicating. And so we're seeing delays on the customer side, even though we know better. We just didn't communicate. So there are so many ways we can weave in what we are hearing and gathering from customers and how that influences decisions about the business. And then the cycle of going back and saying to the customer, here's what we're doing about it, here's what you can do about it, here's what we want to know next, and give them part of this so that we are literally co-creating the experience with our customers. The big takeaway is that, you know, you've heard me say this before, and I'm sure if you're asking this question, you already feel it. Collecting feedback is simply not enough. That is a step in the process. That is not the process. And in fact, those metrics that we love to report on, those are not outcomes unless we turn them into real business outcomes, real business value. If we are only talking about sentiment analysis or how uh our net promoter score is moving, we're missing the opportunity to have a bigger conversation about what will have the biggest impact on the overall organization. This is where customer experience leaders have to lead. We have to lead. If you are being asked to just listen to the customers and let us know what they're thinking, it's up to you to connect the dots, to create that value story so that others will listen and follow your lead. It's that important. Great question. Keep up the great work out there. There is so much around this right now. And you know what? Customer expectations are changing so fast. That's why the subtitle of my book is Making Every Moment Count in the Age of Customer Expectations. This question is a great example because when we actually understand customer expectations, we can do so much more with intentionality and being proactive on behalf of the customer and our organization. But we really have to make sure that we are leading that effort. So I wrote a lot about this in Experience Is Everything, which you can order wherever you order books. But really, this is about you as a leader. And I want to hear how it goes for you. So, Jorge, if you're listening to this, try a few things out, let us know what happened, ask another question. And for those of you who haven't asked a question yet, what are you waiting for? If you're not quite ready to ask a question, the other thing I'll ask, if you have a few minutes, is to rate and review this podcast. If you're a regular listener, which I really appreciate, then please go ahead, check out on our show notes an easy way you can leave a rating. It really helps others discover our podcast and hear great questions like this from listeners just like you. Thank you so much for all you do. I will see you next time. Thanks for listening to Experience Action, brought to you by Experience Investigators. If you're ready to turn insights into action, join our CXI membership. That's our community for customer experience investigators just like you. It's where CX leaders get the tools, support, and inspiration to move from ideas to true impact. And don't miss my new book, Experience Is Everything: Making Every Moment Count in The Age of Customer Expectations. It's available now for pre-order. Learn more and reserve your copy at experienceinvestigators.com. Until next time, keep asking questions, keep improving, and keep leading with experience.