Voice of the customer is relevant to marketing

I was recently involved in a discussion that questioned the relevance of voice of the customer to marketing and why marketing would care about what customers are saying. I’ve always believed that marketers should listen to customers, that we are in a privileged position to do so, and it makes us better marketers as a result. If this discussion is reflective of wider views even in part, I thought it would be useful to share some thoughts around why it’s not just relevant but why it’s essential to the success of marketing or brand teams (in the context of the wider organisation).

We’ve all heard about the importance of being customer centric. Well, marketing is no exception, and helps us be buyer centric. If we understand customers’ problems, how they’re solving those problems, and why they’re motivated to overcome those challenges, we can apply it to our segmentation, our persona definitions and all the way through to the campaigns we choose to run. ?We apply learning from customers to identify and understand how best to communicate with them and attract new buyers. Perhaps most importantly, it provides context to quantifiable data and allows us to act with a market view in mind rather than projecting internal assumptions and bias.

If we understand the language customers use to describe their problem or the solution they’re looking for, we can use this to inform our messaging strategy externally and, when sharing insights internally, a common language and point of view can be established. If there’s a shared understanding across functional boundaries of these pains and motivations as well as what customers are thinking and feeling, only then can there be a joined-up strategy to better serve customers.

Voice of customer can be captured in many ways including surveys, interviews, sales or support calls, reviews, or social media. Some have obvious points of ownership in a business, others less so. For example, reviews in app stores or on the various review sites are often left unacknowledged. Because different teams own the mechanisms for obtaining feedback, it’s important to understand who owns what; check that you are capturing all feedback and who is responsible for taking action based on that feedback. Having a cross-functional team regularly come together to share feedback across the business results in a shared understanding and then a joined-up view on how to best use that information can be established.

If feedback isn’t acknowledged and customers aren’t heard, customer experience is affected, customers churn and very quickly reputation is impacted. At a time when switching costs are typically low, but the number of feedback channels are at an all-time high, we have never had greater opportunity, and need, to act on customer feedback and we should be making the most of our customer voices in marketing. For example:

• Do people use or find value in ways we’re not considering. Should our positioning capture this or is our messaging off?
• Combine it with quantitative data to inform or validate segmentation or identify new segments. Are there customers that can be grouped by problem they’re solving? And how does this break down with demographic, firmographic, technographic data, or MRR??
• How can we drive demand through our base? Using segmentation or certain clustering, what are the upsell or cross-sell paths?
• Understand why customers churn or choose a competitor? Is there something we’re missing in our communications strategy, onboarding, nurturing or is there a product gap that needs to be understood by the product team.
• How are customers feeling about you as a brand? Can we use our customers’ testimony to win new users, increase brand loyalty, or drive word of mouth through our community?

By considering your customers’ feedback and incorporating into marketing strategies, you will be able to develop a messaging framework and hierarchy that truly resonates with those you’re trying to reach by talking the same language as your potential buyers and customers. By being able to break down your audience, combining both qualitative and quantitative data, you’ll be able to speak with a high degree of relevance helping to build trust and credibility in your brand. Listening to customers, acknowledging and acting on their feedback will positively affect your reputation, which in turn drives future demand. You’ll be building a relationship with the customer.

Understanding the voice of customer is a cross-functional business effort that includes marketing.?If the organization centres on what customers are saying, there’s an opportunity to rally around a consistent and shared understanding of the customer. ?Then there’s the opportunity to be a truly customer centric organisation and reap the rewards as a result.