Do You Have a Customer Experience Blindspot?

In my last blog, I explained why listening to customers can provide greater customer understanding than merely observing their behavior.

Many companies seem to agree as evidenced by the number of Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs that exist and increasing amounts of feedback consumers are being asked for.

And yet despite all of the customer feedback that is being generated—whether direct or indirect—many organizations still don’t truly understand their customers.

Why is that?

A common reason is that for many organizations, customer listening efforts are limited to certain channels and not truly representative of the customer base. Email-based surveys, in-store surveys, web intercept surveys, customer service interactions, post call IVR surveys, and social media are all common channels used to capture customer feedback.

However, most companies are only using one or two of these channels. Companies that do listen across a variety of channels are often not integrating the feedback due to organizational silos.

Additionally, few companies take the effort to understand how and when their customers prefer to provide feedback. Some customers are more likely to respond to email-based surveys. Some customers prefer to provide in-the-moment feedback—while others use social media to share their thoughts.

But rather than taking the time to help ensure the right customer is reached at the right time via the right channel, most companies pick the channels most convenient to their needs and blast customers with requests for feedback. The result is low response rates and feedback that may not accurately represent customer perception.

The polling for the 2016 U.S. presidential election is a good example of this. One thing everyone can agree on is the polling industry got the election wrong. There are a lot of reasons why, but one reason is that pollsters only relied on a couple of channels – and those channels were not the most convenient for all voters.

A recent report from the American Association for Public Opinion Research concluded that the polls overrepresented college graduates as they were more likely to participate in surveys than less educated voters. Education level had a far greater influence on the 2016 election compared to past elections—so while the limited channel approach to polling may have worked in the past, the changing circumstances of 2016 illustrated the flaws of traditional polling methods.

What lesson can VoC programs take from this? The factors that influence customer sentiment are rapidly changing and the channels they prefer to use are evolving constantly. It is hard to predict in advance when certain channels will become more or less relevant. The only way to truly understand your customers is to collect feedback across every channel in which they engage with you and then share these insights across your organization.

If you are still using the same one or two channels you have always used to capture customer feedback, you are likely missing out on the perceptions of some customer segments that are important to your organization’s success.

Source: B2C