VoC is not Customer Experience Management
Posted on: October 26, 2010
Imagine a husband who tries really hard to listen to his wife. He watches What Women Want, reads Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and sets aside dedicated "quiet" time each week where he listens to his wife as she pours her heart out and tells him whatever is on her mind. He would appear to be the quintessential husband. The problem is that our quintessential husband does nothing with these conversations. He simply listens, nods his head, files what he’s heard in that back of his mind, but doesn’t act upon anything he’s heard to improve the situation or comfort his wife. He asks but will not act. His wife now calls him “idiot.” I know that many vendors and CE practitioners may take offense to this article’s title. Yet as the saying goes “the truth will set you free.” A Voice of Customer (VoC) program is but one important component in a customer experience management strategy – but it’s only a component. Too many executives see VoC as something they need to do, but not something they in which they will truly invest the requisite time and resources. Practitioners and executives should be cognizant of the fact that VoC is not the pathway to delivering great customer experiences. While such programs are critical to understanding customer needs and employee performance, there needs to be follow up action with respect to employee training, and product and service offerings to ensure that customer needs are met.
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Creating Effective Leadership Sponsorship For Customer Experience Strategy
Posted on: March 17, 2010
In preparation for a customer experience strategy launch, I sat down with the senior leader sponsoring the initiative ad briefed him on the need to demonstrate commitment. He in return stood up at the beginning of the meeting and announced "we are going to do this. If you disagree consider yourself fired. Any questions so far?" This is an extreme case of change management attempt. But variations of it exists in every customer experience effort.
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Customer Experience Strategy - The complete guide from innovation to execution
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