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Tapping Market Intelligence: Don’t Ignore Word of Mouth!

If you are like me, you probably receive requests to share your

opinion about websites, products or services on a daily basis. That is

not surprising if you consider number of technology and service

providers that claim to make VOC solicitation and collection cheap

and easy for companies.

I often wondered why do they go to the effort and expense of

soliciting our feedback while at the same time ignoring Word of

Mouth that is shared online by their customers without any

solicitation.

The other day I received an email survey request from the manufacturer of a vacuum cleaner we have purchased

a few weeks prior. Very polite message from the Customer Experience Director intimated that their VOC

program needs my feedback. I liked the product a lot and left a very favorable review on the retailer’s website

describing my experience. In fact, a few people marked my review as “helpful”. So why this polite gentleman

wants me to answer 32 questions about my satisfaction with their product?

Have I not already published my feedback under my name? I posed this

question to the Customer Experience Director and suggested that the survey

questions were convoluted, too wordy and focused on details of no importance

to this customer. The response indicated that the company does not include

Social Media feedback in their Customer Experience and Satisfaction

measurement efforts because it is a domain of their Digital Marketing group

and their Customer Service department’s Social Media listening team.

Fragmentation of corporate view of a customer and it’s negative impact on

Customer Experience are well documented by experts and sadly experienced by many consumers.

Many companies are striving to engage with Social Customer. However, they insist on controlling method, level

and form of engagement. It is not very smart and it will not work because Social Customer has alternative

options. Corporate believe that social media research does not produce as valuable market intelligence as VOC

is analogous to the conviction that bottled water is “better/cleaner/safer” than the tap water.

Social Media research of WOM has to be included into VOC programs because:

1. WOM often produces much larger data samples. Low customer survey response rates are always a

subject of concern that results are not statistically representative.

2. Social Media research of WOM does not carry a risk of creating a negative touch point of customer

experience by poor execution of VOC effort. Considerable skills and efforts are required to craft the

survey questions and to administer the program without introducing friction into customer

communication with a brand. WOM analysis helps to ask questions that are more relevant to customers.

©Amplified Analytics Inc. 206 Water Street, Pt. Richmond, CA 94801

3. The results of Customer Experience Management sponsored VOC measurements are not visible to the

consumers and if there are, are not believed by the consumers who see it as a form of advertisement.

VOC produce metrics, consumers communicate telling stories.

4.