Over the past 10 years, perhaps more, I’ve been following the so-called Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) industry. Getting, and acting upon, customer feedback is one of the most important habits of customer-centric firms.
I’ve always been mystified why the CRM industry didn’t embrace these sorts of solutions, despite all the rhetoric about customer loyalty. Thankfully, EFM found a home in the burgeoning market for Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions. And in recent years EFM solutions have expanded dramatically to include more channels, use text analytics on verbatims or social feedback, and even connect to CRM for customer history.
And yet, the problem remains that most companies don’t systematically act on customer feedback — less than 50% according to Forrester Research. That’s why I’ve come to define Voice of Customer 2.0 as acting on feedback and creating business value.
To that end, ResponseTek just announced a new mobile app to help get insights to front line workers. CEO Syed Hasan is absolutely right when he says “the value of closed-loop feedback is when it changes behavior.” He is also smart positioning ResponseTek as “not a survey company,” but rather “TQM for the services industry.”
Exactly. Whatever terminology you use, the point of listening is to drive change that improves something that customers care about. Like product and service quality. And smartphones are increasingly the go-to platform for employees on the front lines, especially when they don’t have ready access to a traditional computer.
To the right is an example of a scorecard as it might appear on an iPhone. According to the press release, the dashboard can be customized to provide real-time updates on KPIs, trend reports and personalized results.
I think mobile is also the right direction for capturing feedback from customers immediately after an experience. While surveys will remain an important foundation for VoC programs, I’d like to see more companies focus on ease of data collection, and couple it with fast information and alert distribution to the front line to take action before consumers have a chance to vent on social media. ResponseTek seems well positioned to capitalize on both trends.
