The Infinite Loop

Here’s a worthwhile post at Drew’s Marketing Minute about why, after a survey, it’s important to tell your customers what you’ve learned from them.

… it reinforces the message that you care about their opinion, you listen when they offer feedback and you are always trying to get even better.


My thoughts exactly. Drew calls it closing the loop. My only quibble here is that the loop never closes – once you’ve gained insights from your customers, it’s important to keep that channel open. If you let them know that you’re really listening, they’ll be happy to talk more. Which leads to more listening …

What Killed The Zune?

File this under “no surprises”: Microsoft is ditching the Zune.

Why? Because the product was born out of a need to compete, instead of being created to meet customer needs and desires.

It wasn’t bad as a device – it had a great screen, and a few new ideas. But no one seemed to feel the Zune promised them anything they needed.

What did the Zune promise? Unlimited access to a large music library for a monthly fee of $14.99 – for as long as you kept up your subscription.

In theory, a nice feature. How do you test a theory? By asking your customers if your theory sucks or not. How many times to you need to hear people say that they want to own tunes, not rent them, before you believe them?

What did the Zune promise? The ability to download tunes you hear on FM radio, and from wi-fi hotspots.

The reality: the FM idea sounded good until you realized that most iPod users considered FM radio that thing their parents listen to in the car.

The wi-fi downloads made sense – who wants to wait till they get home to download music? But Microsoft took a couple of years to get that going. During those years (2006-2008) car companies were already coming out with iPod docks.

What did the Zune promise? The ability to share tunes. This is a cool feature, their big innovation, and it might have taken off if they had done it right. As it happened, they forgot to ask customers, “How valuable would you find the ability to give your friends tunes that lasted for 3 lousy plays?” Plus, sharing presupposed a group of Zune users, and Zune users never got thick enough on the ground to congregate in groups.

There were other problems – the high price, the brown color, and having one model versus the wide range of iPods available – but the main reason for the Zune’s demise is Microsoft’s failure to listen.

Customer Listening: Social Media Trails the Old Standbys

If you believed the hype, you would think the only way consumers are telling their friends and family about customer experiences is via social media. Jimmy had a terrible experience with an airline? He must be tweeting about it. Sally had the best dining experience of her life at the new restaurant in town? She must be praising the restaurant on Yelp and telling her friends all about it on Facebook.

Not so, according to a new study by the Temkin Group which shows social media play a small role in these types of communications. By far, people tell friends and family about their best and worst customer experiences by phone, email and in person. As marketers, the problem is you can’t listen in on those conversations. It’s the same problem marketers have always had.

That’s why, despite the promise and hype of social media for listening to customers, it’s STILL crucial to have a proactive, ongoing, strategic customer listening program.

La, La, La, I’m Not Listening …

Recently a client asked us me remove a question from a survey. The question was, “Are there any additional features you’d like us to offer?” It’s a pretty standard question, the purpose of which is to engage customers in the process of co-innovation.

But the client didn’t want it. The reason? “Our product development team has too long a list of features already.”

So let me get this straight – the solution to having too much on your plate is to stop listening to customers?

I find this attitude pretty frightening. To succeed, a company needs passionate customers who will become evangelists. You only create that kind of passion when you know your customers.

Another reason to ask the question is to keep track of changing trends. Suppose they asked the question and found out that the stuff they were developing now was not what the customers were asking for? Wouldn’t that be considered useful information?

You can never stop listening, never assume you know it all, or you’re headed straight for mediocrity.

Insight and transformation

Years ago I embarked on a journey. This was a journey to learn how to better use the web to listen.  Not to collect data or fragments of chatter, but to very intentionally engage customers in intelligent conversational experiences that provide insight. Insight that drives better business decisions.

Listening and insight. That’s what started me on my way. Over these many years my company has developed some of the most powerful web interviewing tools for strategic listening.

But something was missing in this mission. Because insight, while noble, was still a means to a larger end.  What was it? We use that insight to help our clients align better to the needs and aspiration of their customers. We use that insight to help companies better co-innovate with the customers. And we use that insight to help companies better convert that engagement into sales-ready leads.

But, and the end of the day, why?  Simply to drive the topline?

Perhaps. But I began to notice that as we worked with our clients something more powerful began to happen. I saw our clients being empowered by this process, increasing their confidence and indeed, being transformed as they began to realize their power to become transformative. It’s been amazing to watch.

I have come to appreciate that this power of transformation is really the reason we listen. Listening in a way that provides us insight that allows us to act with confidence transforms who we are and what we can do. This process is life giving. It is a promise worth the journey.

Customers Need Love, Too

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Did you give your loved one some flowers? Chocolates? A fancy dinner? If you did, nice going.

But how’s your relationship? Chances are, if that Valentine’s Day gesture is your only display of affection this year, you’re in trouble. Relationships need constant care, feeding and communication. Otherwise, misunderstanding and resentment will build up over time.

Ditto with customer relationships. If you do an annual customer satisfaction survey and consider that enough listening to keep them happy, you’re going to part ways.

Quality matters, not quantity – it’s not how often you throw surveys at them, but how you show you’re really listening, by presenting surveys that relate to each other, rather than repeating the same questions. Do that, and your customers will show you the love.

False Listening

Do you ever get the same survey from a company or organization, year after year? Does it make you mad?

It should.

When you get the same survey again and again, it means the company is not listening. They’re just measuring your answers against some yearly target.

Listening has to evolve and deepen, or else it’s not listening. I was reminded of this while reading a post by Leadership Freak on Improvisational Listening. The nub:

I think most people seldom if ever feel they’ve been truly heard. I believe one of your greatest powers is the power to affirm another through listening.

When I began helping the Portland Development Commission, our first survey covered ground that the participants were used to, since we needed to start somewhere. The members practically threw tomatoes at us. We planned two more surveys, and everyone was convinced they’d be terrible.

In fact, members got a shock: the 2nd survey took into account what we learned from the first. The third was smarter than the second. As a result, they bought into the process and made it theirs. Because we were seen to be listening and learning, we earned the commitment of the members.

So, if you’re tempted to throw out the same old survey, remember what your respondents are thinking: “If you’re not listening, then why am I speaking to you?”

If listening doesn’t change the relationship, it’s not a real relationship.

The Alignment Challenge

Where does the potential for innovation lie? In an organization, it’s in the individuals. And that’s the problem.

Here’s an analogy. We’ve talked about soccer before in a different context. For now, consider that each player has an individual set of ball handling skills – passing, dribbling, and the like. They don’t do much good if each player has a private agenda, say, to look good for photographers, or annoy a rival. But when they’re aligned with one objective, they can realize their potential and score a goal.

All of which is obvious in the soccer field, but not in an organization.

Recently the board of an association came to me with some typical problems: stagnant growth, and a lack of new ideas and programs. The board was trying to brainstorm new ideas in a closed room, as boards do, with no luck. They were using a top-down strategy to revive their association.

And that was the problem. Innovation, at the core, is empowered by individuals, the ones who have a vision and the energy to pursue it. It’s not cooked up in boardrooms. Moreover, that new idea remains only potential unless there is alignment around it. In other words, the whole organization needs to be focused on common goals.

That’s not very hard to understand either. But what we find in many organizations are two things:

• unrecognized potential for innovation at all levels, and
• people in authority who think that it’s their sole responsibility to creating new ideas

The hardest way to innovate is from the top down, but that’s the way companies try to do again and again, through sheer force of will. They don’t realize that it would be easier and more effective to align themselves with the potential for innovation that exists all through their organization.

In the case of the association I mentioned, what they really needed was not to brainstorm ideas, but find the untapped potential for innovation that was already there. I started a program of strategic listening – a web-based program of deep listening to the board, the staff and all members, asking them where they should be applying new ideas.

As it turned out, the members were saying different things from what the board was saying. Little wonder they couldn’t move forward – they were being pulled in different directions at once. Once the board and membership got in alignment, things happened.

So people, remember that the challenges are top-down thinking and a lack of alignment. If your organization isn’t moving in new and exciting directions, perhaps you’re not listening to the people who have the ideas, and working together toward the goal.

Are your customers dying to see you fail?

It’s usually taken for granted that to get feedback, you have to bribe people. Every customer has a price, and if you pay it, you can find out how you’re doing. Fill out a survey and win an iPod (did you ever notice that everyone gives away iPods except Apple?).

The implication is that customers really don’t care about whether you fail or succeed — they have no intrinsic desire to be in a relationship with you.

Years ago, working with one of our multinational retail clients, we tested a different strategy. We approached customers with a sense of humility and partnership, and found out that they were eager to participate. In fact, we discovered an untapped reservoir of good will, and a desire to be heard and to engage with our client.

Just by sending the message in a personal way, keeping the survey relevant, and reminding them that we knew who they were, we got high participation rates. No bribes, no contests.

Naturally, you need to act on what you learn. But the point is, you strengthen your brand by listening. And you’ll find that the people who you listen to want you to succeed.

Watching Customers is Not Listening to Them

Facebook Places is the latest location-based service to enter the market, and thanks to Facebook’s huge footprint, it’s getting tons of hype. Marketers are probably salivating at the thought of taking advantage of the data they get from Facebook’s huge base as they leave a trail around their neighborhoods.

The data streaming into businesses may be useful. But let’s not mistake this for the kind of listening that will allow you to innovate over the long term.
Deep customer listening starts with a question and becomes a conversation. Location-based services are a one-way conversation started by the customer. The data may tell you who are your most loyal customers, but it won’t tell you WHY they are loyal. Essentially, you’re watching customers, not listening to them.

Moreover, you’re listening to a small, self-selected segment of your customers. Don’t confuse the customer who wants to be heard with the customer who has something to say.

No doubt Facebook Places will help companies track consumer behavior better. All those people who say they shop at local greengrocers will now be busted for buying their zucchini at Walmart.

But companies will need to use their ears as well as their eyes if they hope to understand their customers and create something new.