#NoBullshitCX #20yearsFuturelab
“Don’t stick to the seemingly obvious.”
Feedback is not about the averages. When I presented customer feedback to a global leader in steel manufacturing, the management team was very happy with the overall scores (which were pretty decent). They were especially pleased with the page where we had grouped the results based on the contribution of the customers. The larger the contribution, the better the score! This is of course what we hoped to see: our biggest clients were the happiest ones. A group of customers that each contributed over a million margin per year had an NPS score close to 50%, with only a small fraction of detractors. Great! “Let’s move on to the next slide.”
But wait a second–what were these numbers really telling us? I pointed out that “a small fraction of detractors” still meant that several companies with a combined margin contribution of tens of millions were deeply unhappy and ready to seek a new supplier. Those were the real news. Long-term B2B contracts are not easy to secure and almost impossible to rescue when gone. The sales director reached for the phone right there.
This little incidents show how important the individual results are in a Voice of the Customer program. In B2B individual customers easily represent hundreds of thousands if not millions in lifetime value. But even in B2C a single customer can still represent much higher lifetime value than most organizations realize (more about this in my next column). Look at the whole picture and see what it is telling you about the long-term value, and act upon that. This is the easiest ROI of your VoC program!
What are you doing with the feedback your organization is collecting? Shall we check if your VoC programme is capable?
NOTE:
From now on, every Friday, here: Kolle’s column about #NoBullshitCX #20yearsFuturelab