Comments on: The Problem with VOC? The Customer Isn’t Always Right.

By: Bruce Williams

Bruce Williams — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 04:33:52 +0000

Actually, you can and should discover potential disruptive innovations through VOC. But this only occurs if several criteria are met:

1) The VOC researchers have some insight into the business or industry they are studying
2) Open ended questions are focused and thoughtful
3) The VOC researcher MUST spend 90% of his or her time listening, not taking notes! If notes are a must, then bring an assistant to capture them
4) The research questions are NOT pre-scripted. Pre-scripted questions lead the conversation in the direction of the interviewer, and don’t capture what the customer/consumer want/need.
5) Engineering staff should accompany the research effort in order to a) get the buy in of engineering, and b) get engineering thinking about innovative solutions to the issues/concerns raised by consumer/customer.

Innovation flows from identifying a problem to be solved, clearly defining the problem, and then developing a solution. This all sounds easy on the surface, but many companies want to take short cuts, and this rarely if ever works.

Cheers,

- Bruce W

By: Peter Pizzi

Peter Pizzi — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:46:34 +0000

Great post Whitney. I am a big advocate with closing the loop with each B2B customer so that the issues can be immediately resolved at each account (post survey) as well as the learning that happens during each interaction. This is a great opportunity to thank promoters and identify opportunities to leverage their praises. It also helps to clarify the vague responses from the survey and creates a great customer centric mindset with the account managers and your organization. I find that most of the time the issues are relationship based and that this close attention to each customer often works wonders. For product related feedback I look for trends and I understand that a VOC program may not uncover the latent needs of customers but it will provide useful insights for sure.

By: Jack Ju

Jack Ju — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:22:33 +0000

I agree with Pamela. The response, “you don’t really seem to understand my business”, is not really VOC. Not every word uttered by customer is qualified to be VOC. But what is the criteria for determining which is VOC and which is not.

By: Pamela Smith

Pamela Smith — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:45:48 +0000

The term VOC is used widely but often inappropriately. A lot of companies use the VOC to describe any type of customer feedback, focus groups, sureys, etc., while a true Voice of Customer analysis has a very exact methodology that can produce breaththrough results. I agree that if you ask a customer what they think about something, they can only relate to what they know. True VOC studies seek to understand the customers needs and then look for solutions to those needs.

By: Alex Yang

Alex Yang — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:33:47 +0000

VOC can not and should not be interpreted literally. The story of Henry Ford’s comment on VOC was “if I had asked my customer what they want, they would have told me a faster horse.” The insights here are “faster” and “horse”. It is a matter of how you translate them into your product uniqueness after all..

By: Lisa Hubbard

Lisa Hubbard — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:54:12 +0000

Mapping the entire value chain is an important step. In B2B, we can’t afford to rely solely on the direct customer to inform us of their customer’s needs, which could identify new opportunities and innovations. Also, understanding the problems the targeted customers are trying to solve — by watching what they really do (in addition to an interview), can be quite insightful.

By: Robin Reid

Robin Reid — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:25:20 +0000

You’re not going to get ideas for disruptive innovations from VOC, since you’re trying to invent a product that the customer doesn’t even know exists. And remember, it’s VOC not VOD – trying to collect VOC info from your distributors or other channel partners isn’t the same as interviewing end-users.

By: Juan Duarte

Juan Duarte — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:22:25 +0000

As stated here, the most effective VOC responses come when they address as narrow an issue as possible (i.e. specific products for specific customers in specific markets). The problem is that it takes a lot of money and resources to acquire VOC at such a narrow level, especially for companies with extensive product lines and many markets to reach. So, instead they resort to bundled research efforts that provide innacurate bundled answers. As always, it all comes down to money.

By: Customer Service Guru

Customer Service Guru — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:47:46 +0000

I have used the phrase “Buyers are liars” in the workshops of less formal presentations. The problem with listening to the VOC is that the consumer doesn’t really know what they want or need, and negative feedback does not always offer an accurate gauge of areas for opportunity to companies. Private consumers and companies may know what they need but they do not always know the best solutions to get what they need.

Great article.

By: Todd Parisotto

Todd Parisotto — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:48:08 +0000

Just wanted to comment that the VOC concept or tool as it relates to Lean Six Sigma does address and deal with the concerns raised above by ensuring generic customer feedback is turned into value add process needs or requirements. The point I’d like to reinforce is that if VOC is not done properly and within the right context, business consequences can be serious. I plan to review the Texas Instruments approach regardless.