In an incredibly engaging panel discussion facilitated by Satmetrix at our Distinctive Purchase Experience conference, the discussion focused on three major barriers to moving VOC (and in particular, NPS data) from merely data collection to actionable organizational change:

1)      Product-focused B2B organizations that don’t fully appreciate the growth potential inherent in customer-focused strategy

2)      Data captured in organizational silos with little visibility into how and when that data could drive customer-centric change

3)      Limited empowerment of employees to act on customer feedback and even more limited understanding of how employee behavior change links to company growth

Facilitated by Deborah Eastman of Satmetrix, we heard from three NPS practitioners – Lara Wise of tw telecom, Eric Murphy of Ingenix, and Desirree Madison-Biggs of Symantec. Three diverse businesses yet a common theme – all three maintain organizational ownership for driving customer-centric change via NPS. This isn’t a side-of-the-desk project by a mid-level staffer. Customer centricity when executed properly is a firm-level priority driven by c-suite buy-in. All three mentioned in their responses the necessity of full empowerment from the CEO to act as a customer advocate.

Eric made an interesting comment that caught my attention – “what customers really want to buy is results, not just widgets.” What a perfect tie-in to our conference theme, that B2B companies need to provide customers with insight that helps them raise revenue or reduce costs. Commercial excellence is about delivering results to customers through insight tied to our unique differentiators – but we can’t do that unless VOC becomes the fulcrum of marketing and sales.

Desirree made an equally critical point – although NPS is just one metric (and a good one at that), change only results from an end-to-end customer experience initiative. Symantec’s Customer First program tracks progress quarterly to make explicit connections between the NPS metric and required improvement in broader customer strategy. This echoes MLC research that a customer’s experience is not merely the sum of all touchpoints, but the explicit delivery of unique benefits at critical junctures within that experience.

Lastly, Lara’s key takeaway for tw telecom: after their first batch of NPS results came back, employees simply said “so what?” and “what’s in it for me?” That’s perhaps the biggest hurdle, but one most necessary to overcome. Lara said the change was driven by action and commitment – it wasn’t a one-time fleeting idea; VOC and NPS became a cultural focus. From a knowledge management portal to developing appropriate incentives, customer centricity wasn’t just another consulting buzzword, but a new way of life for the organization.

And certainly, it doesn’t hurt when, like Ingenix, your CAGR stats double within two years of customer-centric implementation. I can’t promise such astounding returns, but I can promise that without any customer focus, the storm that is today’s economy will likely just leave many treading water.