The Voice of the Customer:

Learning to Listen

AeAMarch 9, 2006

Chris & Lorraine Stiehl

(619)516-2864

www.stiehlworks.com

                                     

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Let’s Play a Game...

You own a movie theater. You go to Europe on vacation. You ask your assistant to send you a

one page fax at each hotel in Europe to let you know how things are going.

What few pieces of information would you want on the fax?

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Now, a variation …

It is Friday night; you and your significant other are going to the movies.

Suppose you have agreed on a movie. It is showing at two theaters that are

about equi-distant from where you are, and that charge about the same price.

How would you decide which theater to attend?

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Why don’t the lists agree?

Should they? Why, or why not? How does this example relate to your

activities? Do you think like a customer?

What do you use to measure the effectiveness of your activities now?

Do you have metrics that predict success with the voice of the customer?

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The owner of “Psychic Pizza” understands his customers’ needs!

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AT&T Data: You Must Be the Best to

Succeed!

0

25

50

75

100

Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor

% Retention by Rating

% Retained

Satisfaction Rating

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What Customers Can and Can’t Tell You

Customers know what they want! Wants and needs, not exact

features and solutions Customers typically are not

engineers, cannot set technical specs

“Not designed by customers, inspired by customers”

Listening to customers means getting beyond the features or solutions or specifications they request to understand the needs they represent.

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Learning to Listen: The $3 Million Leather

Seat

At Cadillac, we strived to have “perfect” leather

Our ratings did not reflect perfection

We conducted $25,000 worth of voice of the customer research

We redefined flaws as “natural markings”

We saved $3 million per year and received higher ratings

Customer Satisfaction With Leather

78

80

82

84

86

88

90

92

94

Car Company

Sati

sfa

cti

on

Level

"After" Customer Satisfaction With Leather

80

82

84

86

88

90

92

94

96

Car Company

Satis

factio

n L

evel

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A Model of Customer-Driven A Model of Customer-Driven ImprovementImprovement

Voice of the Customer

External Measures

Internal MeasuresProcess Improvement

Qualitative Research

Quantitative ResearchProcess Metrics

Improvement Initiatives

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A Model of Customer-Driven Improvement: A Model of Customer-Driven Improvement:

The Movie Theatre ExampleThe Movie Theatre Example

Fresh Popcorn

Our Popcorn = OK Other Guy = Very Fresh

Number of Minutes in the Bin

Make smaller batches! Save $!

Throw away less!

The Need

The PredictiveMetric

Survey Results

ProcessImproveme

nt

Do you have the“Voice of the Customer?”

…by segment?…prioritized?

…in their own words? …an example…

If you survey your customers, how do you know what to do to change the numbers...

…to raise the satisfaction scores?

…to beat the competition?

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How do we make sure the products we launch have the greatest chance

for success?

Study the markets carefully; LISTEN carefully; how do the companies in that market operate? How do they think? When they say, “Know my business,” what do they mean?

What are their wants, needs and priorities? Often it is priorities that change from market to market rather than needs; e.g., how sensitive are they to “quick delivery?” Would they typically be early adopters of new technology?

If we know their wants, needs and priorities, we can use the House of Quality and other techniques to optimize our product designs to have the best chance of being successful, and to identify keys areas where R&D help is needed.

ProprietaryResearch

January, 2006