ICMI's Customer Management Insight - September 2007 - (Page 45) EXPERT’S ANGLE Make Your Center the Focus of an Actionable VOC Process BY JOHN GOODMAN AND MIKE WILKE The critical functions required for an effective VOC process, and the benefits of deploying it with a consumer relationship system (CRS). Nobody likes unpleasant surprises, particularly if they signal missed opportunities and avoidable missteps that bring losses to the organization — lost market leadership, recalls, lost profits and lost market share. Have you ever encountered any of the following experiences? > A product problem that resulted in a spike in support calls, a recall, or regulatory action that seemed to come out of the blue. > A competitor introduces a product or service that is clearly superior to yours that you could have also produced had you recognized the opportunity. > Complaints from customers or channel partners about quality issues when products leaving the factory meet specs literally 100% of the time. > Completely contradictory input from sales, service and operations or manufacturing on what an updated product or service should look like. The underlying cause of all of these surprises is the lack of an actionable Voice of the Customer (VOC) process. The call center is in the perfect position to rectify this weakness because the call center is constantly receiving the most timely, comprehensive input from customers. WHY HAVE AN ACTIONABLE VOC PROCESS? At the macro level, a VOC process is logical because an accepted key to success is being responsive to your customers. However, TARP has observed that only about half of companies have a coherent VOC process and, of those, over half are not very effective. Therefore, three out of four companies really do not have an effective VOC process. Why is this? And why should you care if your company is in the three quarter majority who are non-performers? Quantify the damage to revenue when customers’ needs are not met. TARP’s first study for the White House Office of Consumer Affairs in the 1970s revealed that consumers with problems who did not complain were less loyal and shared their unpleasant experience with friends. However, those who did complain and had their icmi’s insight www.icmi.com | SEPTEMBER 2007 45 http://www.icmi.com
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