The Voice of the Customer:
Learning to Listen
AeAMarch 9, 2006
Chris & Lorraine Stiehl
(619)516-2864
www.stiehlworks.com
2
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?
3
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?
4
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?
5
The owner of “Psychic Pizza” understands his customers’ needs!
6
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
7
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.
8
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
9
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
10
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?
13
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
Top Related