We Know Better - Who is the Voice of the Customer?

When companies think about growth they often gravitate to the exciting - the high risk- high reward stakes of diversifying into new markets with new products. 

Often forgotten or at least explained away is the fastest way (and typically lowest cost) to grow your top and bottom line – your current customers. This is where an interesting paradox occurs. Some companies are eager to learn about new customers but when it comes to existing customers they “know it all”.   Past experience, often limited to a few interactions, somehow empowers leaders to know what customers want. Customer requests for services or product modifications are explained away as either whining or worse yet customers just not getting it. Simply put the company knows better, the customer is wrong. Taken far enough this inward thinking begins to permeate the organization. For every customer lost or opportunity not won, the company has a rational reason why the customer was wrong and why the company knows better. You will hear this expressed in phrases like – “they didn’t know what wanted”, “they selected that low quality, poorly made competitive product” or my favorite, “don’t worry they’ll learn; they’ll come back to us”. 

Warning signs of inward looking companies who don’t see the value of voice of customer include:

·        Lack of systematic gathering of voice of the customer input

·        Have not validated nor know how their value prop compares

·        Are losing share or growing slower than the market

·        Have unconsciously walked away from or lost customers/groups of customers (example, we used to do a lot of national account business) and don’t know why it is gone

When the voice of the customer is no longer heard much less acted upon, a gap begins to develop. Unless the company is selling insulin, the customer has choices and competitors (existing, new) or substitute products will fill that gap. Left unaddressed, the company will underperform the market and begin to lose share. 

Consider some of the best practices of companies that respect the voice of the customer and are committed to growing with these customers.

·        Enlightened companies exhibit leaders who are humble especially when it comes to the voice of the customer.

·        They actively seek customer input especially if it is data driven and systematically gathered so as to be reliable and unbiased.

·        The entire organization understands what matters to the customer and what sets their company’s value prop apart from their competitors. (warning, if you sell on price, there can only be one low cost leader)

·        They respect the difficult to work with customers and recognize they make your organization stronger.

Further penetrating the market by growing with existing customers can be your fastest way to grow. To do so requires your company to be serious about voice of the customer. How does your company stack up?