Organizations with successful customer feedback programs infuse a ‘customer-centric’ philosophy into every interaction – and it starts at the top.  A customer-centric philosophy reflects a continuous seeking out of customer feedback and a real (not feigned) inclusion of your customers’ thinking in your business decision-making process. In a customer-centric organization, evaluations of product quality, new product/service ideas, and communication with customers are made with intensive 360-degree customer input.   The process is highly proactive, systematic, measurable, and inclusive to ensure all customers have a voice in providing feedback.

Revenue Quantity versus Revenue Quality: From an economic point of view, a customer-centric philosophy recognizes a distinction between revenue quantity (absolute revenue dollars) and revenue quality (volatility of revenue – the source of your business’ cash flow is your customer base). Clearly, a $100 million revenue stream generated by a highly satisfied customer base is markedly different than a $100 million revenue stream generated by customers that are on the verge of leaving the firm or downsizing their business relationship.

Is Your Organization Customer-centric? There are several beliefs that are at the core of a customer-centric philosophy about how businesses should approach their relationships with their customers below.  Take a moment to think hard and be intellectually honest about the type of customer research philosophy that exists in your company. Where does your company’s belief set lie? Does your senior management team hold these beliefs?  How is the philosophy evident within your organization?  What do you do to foster this way of thinking?

Colin Wahl, CEO Client Opinions, Inc.

If your firm has an internal research department that is independent, properly trained in research design, analytics and execution and equipped with the necessary technology, there should be no need to outsource the research process. If your firm does not have an internal research department you may consider purchasing web-based research software and implementing the research program on your own. Alternatively, you may wish to use a third party.

Independence and objectivity are the main reasons for using a third party to execute your client feedback program – especially if you are conducting employee surveys. Further, there can be cost advantages if you don’t want to or cannot invest in the proper software or commit personnel time to the project.

An independent third party can construct your survey and analyze your results without feeling the pressure of internal agendas or the need to “confirm” self-serving hypotheses about your customers. When research is conducted internally, the person conducting the research has his/her own opinions as to what your company’s customers think creating personal bias. Personal bias can result in leading questions, leading response categories, a limited or myopic range of questions, and confirmatory hypothesis testing. A biased research process will lead to biased findings that in turn will result in sub-optimal strategic and tactical decisions.

There is little argument that you know your business better than anyone. That knowledge alone, however, is not compelling enough reason to engage in the research process yourself. The key consideration is how well you know the business of research. Questionnaire design and data analysis is quite challenging. A poorly designed questionnaire and a poor analysis strategy will lead to useless results, wasted money, and disappointment – and sometimes you may not know it until it’s too late! The “garbage-in, garbage-out” concept applies to this process and has come back to haunt many companies.

Another consideration is time. Doing research in-house requires significant time and effort from at least one member of your management team, who will be sidetracked from doing his/her job. There is a significant “opportunity cost” involved with this level of business distraction. Also, obtaining the materials, technology and infrastructure that it takes to run a research project is expensive, especially when you consider that additional time and money will be used by your IT department in initializing survey, analytics and web software.

Colin Wahl, CEO                                                                                                                                                                                                        Client Opinions, Inc

Step #1: Determine Your Objectives

“If you don’t know where you are going…no road will get you there”

The online research process begins with this key question: What do you want to accomplish? More specifically, what business decisions do you want to make from the information you gather? Planning doesn’t begin until you clearly envision the end result. Working backwards is usually the best way to begin designing the research program you want to execute. All of the program’s activity will work toward addressing the key question(s).

Having made the decision to obtain your customers’ feedback on how you are doing, resist the strong tendency to begin scribbling questions on a legal pad or furiously typing your thoughts into your PC. In fact, this is the time to put the pen down and spend some moments thinking about what you want to achieve with this endeavor. This is the time to plan, to outline the path you will take to increase the likelihood you will accomplish your objective.

Establishing Survey Objectives:
Define what your idea of “success” is concerning the research process: What specific information you wish to obtain, and how you plan to use the information? Think through the times when you have made critical marketing/ advertising/ sales decisions – What do you wish you would have known to make the best decisions possible?

Consider asking questions about the decision process your customers went through to choose your business. What information was critical to their decision making? This approach provides insight into ways you might affect the decision process. Who did they compare you to? What advantages and disadvantages do you have compared to your competition? What sources do your customers rely on for information? How satisfied do you believe your customers are? Find out how loyal they are to you. What would it take for them to switch away? Why do they stay with you? Are there any new product ideas you would like to get customer response to? Any proposed changes in processes you would like to get their thoughts on? What ideas do they have?

Before you confirm your research objectives, consider how you will use the information to the benefit of your business. Objective setting is the most important decision you will make in this process. The issues that you have to address in each stage of the research will reflect the objectives you decide to pursue.

As you think through this beginning stage of the process, keep these two points in mind:

1. In the survey process, less is more. While you may want to address a wide variety of issues and make the most of the dialogue with your customers now that you have their attention, we recommend that you resist the temptation. Time won’t permit such a lengthy online questionnaire! Focus 2-3 business issues and create a 3-5 minute survey at most. You do not want to fatigue your respondents to the point that they just drop out of the survey or do not provide thoughtful answers to your questions.

2. Stay true to your research objectives. Do not abuse your customers’ time by asking questions that are not germane to your objectives. Be strict with yourself and focus on factors that you can influence. All survey questions should relate to the research objectives and the different ways you might analyze the information for the greatest learning.

Colin Wahl

Understanding what motivates customers and how to make your products and services relevant to them is fundamental to building strong customer relationships. Successful companies know the critical importance of reaching out to their customers for feedback, yet few firms do it and fewer do it consistently well. The worrisome truth is that you will receive feedback whether or not you ask for it– if you don’t reach out to your customers, they will ‘speak up’ by walking away (never to return), not including you in discussions of new business opportunities, or increasingly doing more business with a competitor.

Today’s competitive landscape which knows no geographic bounds demands smarter approaches to getting and keeping your customers– especially in these economic times. It is common to think that just offering lower prices will draw business. Though pricing is a key element, it is NOT the primary reason that drives thriving businesses. Customers will pay premium prices for value.

Understanding your customers’ definition of ‘value’ is the cornerstone of the strongest research and marketing plans.

Colin Wahl, CEO
Client Opinions, Inc.

In this economy, most businesses are facing tough times.  Revenue is down, budgets are being cut, and jobs are at risk.   Many of our customers question the wisdom of engaging their customers at this time.  They fear the worst and think talking to their customers could damage their relationship.  So many businesses are ducking for cover and waiting for better times.  Here is our view on how to manage your relationships during a down economy.

Don’t be a “fair weather friend” to your customers!  Let your competitors cower and run for cover while you stand side-by-side with your customers.  True friends, like true business partners, listen to you and stand by you in tough times.  Here are three key reasons why now is the BEST TIME to reach out to your customer base, listen, and develop creative solutions for them.

1.   Listen now…when your customers will really open up.  Many customers tend to open up when times are tough. They need someone to tell their problems to. Someone who will listen. Someone who can help them.  Be proactive! Reach out and engage your customers NOW and they may reveal information they would not normally share.

2.  Hang on to everything you’ve got.  Our first priority in tough times is to make sure we don’t lose the customers we’ve already got.  Customers are facing pressures that put even the best relationships at risk.  Take the pulse of your customers now so you can identify and manage any potential risks.

3.  Stand by them now and they will remember you later.  In today’s economy, most businesses don’t have time to listen to their customers.  Taking the time to connect with them now shows your commitment and will set you apart.

Smart leaders will identify ways to make the best of these challenging times by protecting the business they have and finding ways to strengthen their customer relationships while the competitors are hiding in fear. 

Rick Thompson

EVP, Client Opinions

A major competitive advantage of successful companies is their ability to form deep, enduring customer bonds through a powerful brand image or a personal relationship. They understand that investing in research to forge a strong connection with customers will unlock the secrets to building a business with superior products and services, a secure revenue base, and enhanced opportunities for growth. They know their relentless focus on customers drives a highly positive return on investment (ROI): 

5 Drivers of ROI from Customer Research

1. Better Decision-making

Customer thinking will be infused into your decision making process. This direct, unbiased and balanced feedback from customers will lead to more informed, better quality decision-making.

2. Revenue Growth

Customer research will typically uncover numerous new cross-selling revenue opportunities, ideas for new products and services and enhancements to key business processes.

3. Insulates Customers from Competitors

A customer research program will enable you to anticipate and resolve issues before they get out of control and you lose a customer. In the process, you will enhance overall customer satisfaction, deepen relationships and protect your customer base from competitive threats.

4. Provides a Forward-looking (Predictive) Indicator of your Business

Unlike revenue and other financial measures that are “backward-looking” indicators of business performance, customer feedback provides a “forward-looking” or predictive indicator of your future business stability. Low or declining levels of customer satisfaction provide an early warning signal of a potential decline in business even though current revenue is healthy.

5. Sends a Clear Message to Customers That You Care About What They Think

The simple act of soliciting their feedback lets customers know that their opinions count and that your firm cares enough to invest time and resources in listening to them.

Colin Wahl, Founder & CEO

The research process begins with two questions, where do you want to go? And how will you get there? You will need to clearly articulate what information you would like to obtain from your customers and how you plan to use that information to advance your business.

 Defining the Vision

 Thinking backwards is usually the best way to begin to define the vision for your survey.  Think deeply about the end result of the research process…what charts and information would you like to see? What data and information will be on each of the charts? How will the charts be labeled? What business decisions would you like to make from the resulting charts?  What demographic information will you need (e.g., gender, information, location, etc). You need to know how you’ll want to use and segment the data so you can determine what should be included in the survey questions. Go through each survey question and ask yourself two questions. What business insight will the answer to this question provide? What business decision(s) will the answer to this question help me make? If you can’t relate the answer to a meaningful insight or business decision, then get rid of the question. Survey real estate is precious, so each and every question has to “earn the right” to be in the survey.

Suggestion:

Take out a piece of paper and sketch the charts you would like to see at the END of the survey process, be sure to label the axis of any graphs and headings, sub-headings where appropriate. Going through this process will help you derive the proper questions, anticipate data breakouts and ensure your survey program is structured to capture the appropriate information. 

Colin Wahl, Founder & CEO

Today is Election Day in the United States.  One key tenant of Democracy is that it acts as a great equalizer by transferring power from a centralized government to the masses.  In a similar manner, online research can be a Great Equalizer for thousands of companies large and small.  

Online Research significantly reduces the cost of research by replacing expensive telephone, face-to-face, and direct mailed research with Internet-based surveys distributed by email.  This means that proprietary research that used to be prohibitively expensive for all but the largest, most well funded companies is now available to the masses.  This opens up critical research not only to small and mid-sized companies, but also to many departments of large-sized companies that previously had all their research requirements centrally controlled.

While powerful, Online Research is not a panacea and it still requires “professional help” to ensure you are designing, deploying and analyzing high quality research.  One watch out with any research is that having “bad information” is worse than having no information at all.  This is because when you have no information, you know you are shooting in the dark and can plan accordingly.  But with bad information you develop a false sense of confidence.  You think you are aiming in the right direction, but you’re not.  So, you can end up wasting a lot of resources shooting in the wrong direction.

If you haven’t already looked into the capabilities of Online Research, now is a good time to elect to do so.  It has high reach, relatively low cost and the flexibility to conduct deep dive research or quick response feedback.  As such, there is no longer a good excuse for any company to make critical business decisions without getting critical feedback.  How ever you choose to use it, Online Research is a Great Equalizer.  

Rick Thompson

Executive Vice President