This is the first in a series of ten posts that explore my deep concerns about the effective application of Voice of Customer (VOC) research. The phrase “VOC” has been bandied about for a number of years now. VOC is considered essential as customer views change; it’s important to factor-in issues that customers face in areas we can provide solutions. As leaders navigate in this “new normal” era of slow to weak growth, we’re learning that our B2B value propositions are resonating differently, from somewhat differently to drastically different. My use of “Train Wrecks” to describe how VOC is being applied isn’t tame language at all, and you might wonder why – it’s because we’ve observed a number of Worst Practices in this area, and a variety of companies seem to make the same mistakes over again. During the series I’ll make a number of key points about how VOC methods being routinely misapplied by so many companies today, and why these common sense approaches are so ineffective. Note that most of this thought applies to B2B; in B2C we’re seeing much better discipline and better practices., especially in getting direct VOC.
True VOC is the careful aggregation of objective information, without interviewer or survey bias ,that helps us better understand what groups of customers need. The techniques deployed can range from the simple and low cost to the very complex and costly. We will list and discuss these in a later post. The focus here is to briefly describe what many B2B companies are doing to hear the “Voice of the Customer” but why they are, in fact, not.
One of the root causes in VOC train wrecks is not taking the time and making the right investment in collecting VOC. I contend that many B2B companies see VOC as an expense and not an investment. In B2B there tends to be an over-reliance on the sales force and channels to drive the final mile of marketing – getting the value propositions and positioning right – when in fact the product and offering process should be well tested and developed before putting it into the hands of the channel. Effective VOC can help marketing fully bake an offering, so there are no surprises during initial channel engagement. Testing messaging, positioning, value propositions, and pricing as part of a pre-launch marketing program will reveal how the offerings will be received.
We do see this best practice in B2C. Leading consumer products companies like P&G know before launch whether the product is accepted and the messaging resonates. In the B2B world, Northpoint uses a simulated sales call process to help determine how the product or service will be received before it goes to market.
I know of companies that spent $20 million to develop and launch a product, and spent nothing on effective VOC. In several cases I know, the product had to be re-launched – still with no real VOC – so the value proposition is weak or the pricing is wrong or the positioning is off – and they sacrifice price / margins to get at least some sales. So, why, we ask, do leaders ignore effective VOC when there is such a high price to pay?
With this background, we’ll explore 10 VOC Train Wrecks over the coming weeks. Here’s the first:
VOC Train Wreck #1: Taking input from the sales force and channels. Having dialogs with your market access points, such as channels, is critical in order to support them. The channels are able to express what they see and need on a variety of points. They can tell you about what customers want, what competitors are doing , and other sales enablers and barriers.
Channel input provides a lot of spin -first from customers to your sales people, and then additional spin for each layer the message is relayed within the company. So you might get some kernels of value, but rarely will this happen when developing products and new programs. The ingredients that are missing are objectivity, projection to a broader base of customers (you get a disproportionate amount of input from highly vocal customers – “squeaky wheels”), and getting at unmet needs and unexpressed problems in the customer’s business.
So it’s wise to not over-value the VOC inputs from your channels, and to find ways to effectively apply various VOC tools to get a direct input from customers. As we know ,customers won’t necessarily help us design products, but there are ways to get at what’s holding them back.
This is only the first of ten VOC Train Wrecks I’ll explain in coming weeks. At the end of a series I’ll provide a scorecard of all of them, and I hope that it will be a helpful reminder of how to recognize and avoid these pitfalls, and to assess your own VOC efforts.