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Voice of the Customer Program

According to a recent report by the SSPA, "Most customers would likely say that their input was not a driving force behind product releases." To help change this, the SSPA recommends the following:

1. Educate customers on the use of their input. They should be informed of the specific programs in place to capture their feedback and how it is used by support, development, marketing and other functions. Once explained, customers will understand that feedback programs are more than lip service.
2. Make your organization an "active listener". Customers frequently complain that companies do not hear or understand them. Apply "active listening" guidelines to your customer communications. Acknowledge input electronically to show it has been captured, recap top requests or input themes for customers, and give them some realistic feedback on their requests.
3. Coach agents on relationship skills as well as technical skills. Encouraging customers to give input and thoughtfully discussing their ideas is not a skill set necessarily found in all technical support agents. Training is required for agents to understand the soft skills necessary to broker and build relationships with customers, and incentive programs must be changed to focus on more than productivity and technical expertise.