How to Use VoC Insights from Employees & Customers to Improve Experiences

Article by Ernan Roman Featured on CustomerThink.com

We are often asked what sources of VoC insights should be used to improve the company's customer experience. And often, these insights are right in front of you—from your own customers and employees.

Gain Insights From Your Customers

"We see the members of our Emerald Exchange Community as the eyes and ears of our team," said Carol Jones, Director of Insights & Intelligence for National Car Rental ," …they come back to us with photos, videos and narratives about what they've seen and experienced. They really are an extension of our team and their insights are truly invaluable."

These insights have paid off for National Car Rental; Emerald Club membership are up 27% and revenue is up incrementally.

Gain Insights From Your Employees

Every member of your team has some type of interaction with customers whether directly or indirectly. And all can benefit from a united effort to understand VoC insights across all departments and levels.

Fast food company Chipotle has stated that they owe much of their growth to developing an atmosphere in which employees
have unique access to customer experience via an experience culture. According to Steve Ellis Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer for Chipotle, "Our focus on our unique people… for a restaurant experience that is redefining fast food for the better."

The company has taken the customer experience and broken it out by experience components called "4 pillars of throughput":

• Expediters: keep track of every detail between the order placement and payment to be sure all is progressing well with a customer's meal.
• Linebackers: Make sure that everything is in place to prepare food so that the employees serving customers never turn their backs on them.
• Mise en place (French for "putting in place"): Chipotle has a zero tolerance for not having absolutely everything in place for a good customer experience and these employees ensure that things are ready.
• "Aces in their places": A commitment to having the most important positions filled with experienced employees at the busiest times so that there are no problems or delays in customer experience.

This approach has paid off for Chipotle; Revenue is up 24.4%; same-store sales are up 13.4%; and net income is up 8.5.

How to Formulate Your Own VoC Insight Strategies:

1. Evaluate Multiple Sources of VoC Insights.
   Evaluate the multiple sources of VoC insights available to you and their strengths and weaknesses. This can include: feedback from a Call Center, Field and Retail Reps, NPS, Email surveys, etc.
2. Create Specific Questions Appropriate to Each VoC Vehicle.
   Develop strategies and questions specific and appropriate to each VoC vehicle, yet keep it easy for customers to rate their experiences. This might include an email survey the day after their sale; a tab on your FaceBook page for Customer Experience Ratings or, a form on your website for comments or questions, etc.
   
   There may also be complex strategy goals which require in-depth, one on one VoC conversations with customers to understand what is not working and how they want it fixed.

To fully benefit from VoC insights first define how the information will be used and how it will be visible to multiple departments. Then put in place a set of appropriate actions for each set of learnings. This must all be actionable.

3 Ways Mobile is Impacting Your Marketing Right Now

Your company has become a mobile experience for customers whether you are ready for it or not. Today's multi-device consumer is increasingly accessing your information, messaging and ads on a mobile device. Your challenge is how to utilize mobile to take consumer experiences to a higher level.

1. Mobile Has Changed the Path to Purchase

According to retail strategy and marketing firm InReality's report, "Reality of Retail", it was noted that;

The following three types of conversations were identified as critical;

• 71% of shoppers who use loyalty programs still use their mobile for price comparisons.
• 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
• And, “technology, especially mobile, is having an impact on the store—changing the shopper's path to purchase.”

With the knowledge that smartphones are innovating customer experiences, Outback Steakhouse is utilizing the medium to provide real-time wait time data via their “Clickthru Seating” app. The development of the app was driven by a consumer survey that discovered there was a wait of 40 minutes to be seated. According to Elizabeth Watts, director of media and community relations, “Our number one priority is to provide our guests with the best customer experience possible….Click Thru Seating empowers our guests [to] get a table when they want it.”

Guests use a mobile device to access current wait times and place a reservation. This new feature is an addition to the company's existing 365 app which offers surprise deals with a countdown clock and notifications of nearby restaurant special events.

2. In-Store Mobile Use is on the Rise

Accenture's survey of U.S. retailer operations across multi channels, found that enhancements in the mobile in-store experience are needed to meet consumer expectations;

• 39% said they would like the opportunity to earn loyalty points and save money by using in-store mobile phone offers.
• 45% want to receive real-time promotions via their mobile device.

3. Email Access via Mobile

Consumers and prospects are increasingly using mobile devices to access email messaging.

According to the full year 2014 Litmus study of 12 billion worldwide opens “nearly half of emails are opened on smartphones and tablets—a 500% increase in four years. Additionally, in the Yesmail's “Email Marketing Compass” 4Q 2014 report;

• Email mobile-open orders increased by 58%.
• Breakout of those orders by device type; 24% iPhone, 59% iPad, 16% Android phone.

Avenue, a plus-sized women's retailer understood two things about their clientele; they love their mobile phones and they love a bargain. So the company used SMS mobile messaging to connect with their customers to offer bonuses, discounts, and introductions to new fashions. The opt-in effort included traditional emails, in-store signage, and web signup links. The campaign was so engaging for customers that the company reports the mobile messages generated 97% percent open rate with 71% of users accessing deals from their smartphone.

3 Takeaways:

1. Utilize mobile to take consumer experiences to a higher level. Don't embrace mobile for the sake of technology. Embrace it for the benefits it can bring to your consumers and for the insights that it can net for your company.
2. Use mobile as a positive influence tool. In the Telmetrics third annual Mobile Path-to-Purchase report it was noted that 60% of consumers used mobile exclusively to make a purchase decision.
3. Be sure to have responsive versions of emails and web. A study by mobile marketing firm NetElixir Inc. finds that “conversion rate for smartphone shoppers on mobile-optimized sites is 160% higher than the rate for smartphone shoppers on non-optimized sites.”

A MassMutual CMO Answers 4 Questions for Marketing Innovators

Heather Smiley, CMO, Retirement and Worksite Insurance at MassMutual, will address these 4 questions;

1. What is one marketing topic that is most important to you as an innovator?
2. Why is this so important?
3. How will the customer experience be improved by this?
4. How will this improve the effectiveness of marketing?

Please send your feedback and ideas for people you would us to interview to ernan@erdm.com

Heather is the Chief Marketing Officer of Retirement and Worksite Insurance at MassMutual, a Fortune 100 financial services company. Her focus is to help people secure their future and protect the ones they love through employee benefits at the workplace. MassMutual currently serves 3 million American workers at over 40,000 companies and organizations. A strong supporter of our military and their families, Heather is active with the USO and the Wounded Warrior Project.

1. What is one marketing topic that is most important to you as an innovator?

MassMutual's mission is to help Americans secure their future and protect the ones they love. To make that mission a reality, our customers need to be informed and motivated about something that is often out in the distant future or hard to imagine.

And when we do succeed in creating this "motivated moment", it needs to be easy to take appropriate action. Creating and managing increasingly targeted, personalized and action-oriented messaging across today's many and changing marketing channels is our biggest strength and continued opportunity.

2. Why is this so important?

The stakes are high when your mission is to help America's greatest asset - its workforce - insure their family from the losses of a major illness or untimely passing and having an adequate retirement income. So, whatever we can do to enable our customers to take action is a win for both the customer and our business.

We sell and service through the workplace where a business-level sale happens first, so having a unique and comprehensive employee benefits experience across human, mobile, social and web formats differentiates us and helps us win us the privilege of working with America's employees.

3. How will the customer experience be improved by this?

A major business principle for us is being easy to do business with, which is at its core about constantly improving the customer experience. Knowing what's important to our customers given their life stage or job role and where they consume information helps them to quickly get guidance and make decisions on critical matters. We do this by matching images and messaging that fits a customer's age, gender and life stage. They can then increase their savings rate by checking one box on a business reply card or one click on an email. Attention spans are short and our offering isn't often top of mind for much of our audience, so we'd better get it right within seconds.

4. How will this improve the effectiveness of marketing?

No matter if you are buying for your company or buying for yourself, today's consumer expects that you understand them and their unique needs before you even engage. They expect you to make use of information that they know is available or are willing to give to you — if it leads to a higher quality, faster interaction. When a customer enrolls in their 401k plan, we ask how they'd like to be contacted and about what. Print, email, or phone call? Webinars about paying off student loans or teaching your kids about money? We have seen a clear pattern in superior marketing results coming with deeper targeting through increased knowledge of the customer's preferences and behavior. My marketing leadership philosophy is simple - do more of what works and less of what doesn't, and better personal relevancy works.

What is your favorite activity outside of work?

Outside of work I like to spend time with my children, but my husband and I are on the verge of being empty nesters so that dynamic is changing. I'll have more time to focus on my passions of being physically active, driving fast cars and keeping up with the latest in fashion.