The seven heavenly virtues of VOC research

Abstract

As a follow-up to his 2011 article on the seven deadly sins of voice-of-the-customer (VOC) research, GfK's Howard Lax outlines seven things researchers should do to establish a successful VOC program.

Editor's note: Howard L. Lax is vice president, consulting, GfK customer loyalty, at GfK Custom Research of North America, New York. He can be reached at howard.lax@gfk.com. This article appeared in the May 7, 2012, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.

Having written an article last year about how not to conduct voice-of-the-customer (VOC) research, I've often been asked for the flip side: What are the right things to do when designing an effective program? A list of things not to do is scarcely much of a blueprint.

So far I have begged off (that is, practiced laziness) and advised doing the opposite of the seven deadly sins. After all, that is how the seven heavenly virtues originally were defined - as the converse of the seven deadly sins. I have always known, however, that positively specifying the to-dos to design an effective VOC research program requires more than simply passively avoiding the don't-dos.

Absolution complete, here are the seven heavenly virtues of VOC research and why they are essential to the effective design, implementation and follow-though on any customer loyalty or customer experience research program.

Commitment

Your VOC program must be committed to meeting clearly-defined business objectives that direct the research and implementation.

This may seem like an obvious baby step but the frequency with which companies have VOC initiatives built in a proverbial vacuum, without commitment to specific business objectives, continues to stun me. At the risk of stating the obvious, charting a course requires a starting point and a destination. Repeat after me: The research is not the objective. The research is merely a tool that should be motivated and directed by the business goals. Absent a business vision, the research is a meandering waste of time and money - flipping a coin would be quicker and cheaper (and probably have a smaller margin of error).

Tenacity

Tenaciously maintain the focus on business objectives and customize the design and solution to best meet those objectives, given the situation, opportunity and practical constraints.

This would seem a logical consequence of pursuing specific business objectives but firms often state their objectives and then promptly turn to shop for what might already be available. Don't start with off-the-shelf, syndicated, normative approaches and studies - those were built either for the lowest common denominator to maximize their appeal or for the first player into the syndicate. Be tenacious. The solution your company needs is the one that best suits your business model, value proposition, competitive situation and industry.

Not to throw stones but the American Customer Satisfaction Index scores make for interesting newspaper statistics; J.D. Power ratings make good advertising copy; and Net Promoter Score results get conference slots. But were these one-size-fits-all approaches designed for your company? If they meet your needs - great, use them - just don't make the mistake of defaulting on your journey by blindly adopting someone else's map.

Steadfastness

Be steadfast in your focus on capturing the voice of the customer and what matters to customers.

Never waver or lose sight that it's the customer's perspective and voice that you are trying to understand to capture their heart and mind, not to mention their future spend. The focus needs to be on customers and what matters to them. This means steadfastly identifying, quantifying and prioritizing the issues that matter most to customers and accurately measuring their assessment of your performance. This doesn't mean that your internal metrics and employee perceptions aren't important; those measures may (and should) be related to what your customers say but they are not the same thing.

Understanding

Understand and control the who, what, when and how to satisfy the why.

Having decided to do the research, do it right. I don't mean to imply a dogmatic vision of right and wrong but the need to understand, design and control the critical inputs - whom (sample and population) you ask what (questionnaire or guide), when (timing) and how (mode of data collection and question design) - to best address the why (business objectives).

You typically abdicate control over these inputs with the off-the-shelf, syndicated, normative work. If you go this route, at least make certain you thoroughly understand the inputs so you know the strengths, weaknesses and any limitations of the underlying data and what it represents. In other words, if the data validly captures the experiences of left-handed fish owners who happened to be in the mall the evening of February 5th, 2012, instead of watching the Super Bowl (or the commercials) like the other 111 million viewers in the U.S., you may want to pause before treating the numbers as representative of your U.S. customer base.

Equitable

Set fair and meaningful goals based on the data and the objectives.

Goal-setting always is a challenge. Part art, part science, goals need to be anchored in reality; drive inspiration to improve what matters; and be supported by the resources necessary to the task. That means lots of issues to take into consideration, especially if there is money at stake. Being equitable means recognizing the interests and goals of all stakeholders; the practical opportunity for and constraints on improvement; the nature of survey measurement; and the fundamental purpose of setting targets.

Meaningful

Link to your financials and customer databases to quantify findings, drive change and improve.

Don't just settle for the clichés about the importance of customer experiences and loyalty. Track, validate and quantify the results and link back to business objectives, which usually are expressed in terms of financial outcomes and/or customer behaviors. Empiricism is all about practical measurement - the foundation of applied research. While there is no shortage of solid data on linkage to results, the most meaningful linkage is to your data and performance metrics to quantify the value of improvements; fund initiatives; and build the business case for your company's C-suite.

Resolute

Be resolute in implementation: lead, communicate, action-plan, fund initiatives and remeasure.

While you might only be able to manage what you measure, do not assume that measurement equates to management. The results must be used to have any meaning or impact. You need a commitment to infuse VOC thinking into the DNA of the company and effect change. This requires:

Leadership: Get an executive sponsor to champion the cause.
Communications: This needs to be ongoing and targeted both internally throughout the organization and externally to customers.
Action-planning: Share ideas and determine what to do (e.g., OK, we have the scores, now what?).
Funding initiatives: Having empirically validated the value of improved performance, fund those actions that promise the best cost-benefit ratio.
Remeasuring: The journey never ends, as the challenges, competition, customer expectations and objectives are endlessly moving. Yesterday's results are simply the starting line for tomorrow.

A path to best practices

I can't promise "heavenly" rewards or nirvana for applying these virtues but they are a path to best practices in customer experience and loyalty VOC research programs. Follow them and you'll be on your way to achieving the most important reward of all: satisfied customers.