- Putting the "I" into Listening to the Voice of the Customer
- Typical Approach to Listening to the Voice of the Customer
- World-Class Approach to Listening to the Voice of the Customer
- Five Voice-of-the-Customer Best Team Practices
- Impediments to the Voice-of-the-Customer Challenge
- Strategies to Overcome the Voice-of-the-Customer Challenge
- Voice-of-the-Customer Plan of Action
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Voice-of-the-Customer Plan of Action
To help incorporate listening to the customer’s voice into their mission, team members can start by identifying the customers for all team activities. Teams assigned a specific task or goal need to know the beneficiaries and users of their work. By listing all customers and stakeholders for all team assignments, teams get a better handle on achieving objectives.
Second, teams should incorporate listening to the voice of the customer into every team assignment. Drawing from the list of customers who will benefit from the team’s effort, team members should discuss with the customers what they need in order to fulfill their business responsibilities. This exercise will focus the team’s effort on satisfying customers, as opposed to allowing it to put effort into activities that may or may not be on target.
The third strategy involves advising customers in advance of conducting the previously described survey. Team members should tell customers that members of the team will contact them to solicit requirements. Advance notice is advisable because people in most organizations are not encouraged to go up and down the hallways knocking on doors and asking questions—management will need to set the scene for team contact with customers. Team leaders should inform customers, for example, when and through what medium team members will contact them. In addition, they should inform customers how long the surveying process will take, and provide a concise, clear description of benefit to customers and their organization.