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  • What Did Mark Twain Know About Business-to-Business Customers?
  • E.G. Insight’s Eric Engwall and Nick Wassenberg Featured in Business Insider’s Voice of the Customer Series
  • E.G. Insight’s Gary Gerds Shares Best Practices in Gathering Actionable Business-to-Business Customer Feedback
  • Are Your Customer Relationships “Emotionally Intelligent”?
  • Three Reasons to Add Face-to-Face Reviews to Your Customer Feedback Efforts
  • Going Beyond Responsiveness to Meet Customer Needs
  • The Customer Confidence Crisis – Why Now is the Time to Rebuild Your Customers’ Trust
  • Martin Scorsese and Confident Customers
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As part of a series outlining the purposes, objectives, and tools used by companies worldwide, Business Insider spoke with a group of customer research experts to get the latest trends and issues related to voice of the customer programs. E.G. Insight’s Managing Partner Eric Engwall and Research Analyst Nick Wassenberg provided their points of view about gathering feedback from business-to-business customers.

Excerpt from the article:

Nick Wassenberg, Research Analyst for E.G. Insight, Inc., suggests several factors that could present ideal times to measure what your customers are thinking.

For internal factors, such as making the decision to expand into new markets, you would need to perform customer research to understand what those new customers want. And then there are external factors, such as the recession, which might inspire you to find out how it’s affecting your customers’ buying decisions and needs.

As Eric Engwall, a managing partner for E.G. Insight, puts it, “Reality never works out like your business plan.” So it’s crucial to get out there, find out what your customers are thinking, and adjust.

You’ll make the biggest impact if you focus your customer research on these topics:

• More effective product development
• Better customer service and satisfaction
• More targeted marketing efforts
• Increased knowledge about your competitors’ products and how customers are using them

The series is sponsored by Toyota and will be released in two parts: the first is a summary of what can be learned from listening to customers and the second reviews various tools companies can use to capture customer feedback.

The full report can be found here: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-you-can-learn-from-listening-to-your-customers-2010-5

For months, best-selling author Dan Pink has posted examples of “emotionally intelligent” signage on his blog. These examples appeal to human emotions and use humor, sarcasm, or parody to get his intended point across. One of my personal favorites can be found here. Pink uses these examples to illustrate his point of view that right-brained emotion drives decision making and motivation.

Are you missing a chance to make your customer relationships more emotionally intelligent?

I think there’s an opportunity that many organizations miss – especially businesses that sell complex products or services to other businesses – in the way they interact and communicate with their customers, including the way they collect customer feedback. There is a tendency to collect customer feedback in two ways: 1) doing operational or tactical performance surveys, and 2) having account management teams gather ad-hoc feedback while putting out fires or working on the next proposal. While both of these methods can be beneficial, there’s a chance to make an emotional connection as well.

My point of view – and one that our customers share – is that taking the time to conduct an in-depth interview process to gather customer feedback is critical. Not only can you probe deeper into key issues, but it gives your organization a chance to reinforce person-to-person bonds consistently across all accounts. If you’re selling consultative solutions to your customers’ problems, taking a “high-touch” rather than high-tech approach to listening to their feedback will help the relationship thrive over time.

In an era of shaken confidence and trust, isn’t now the perfect time to put emotional intelligence into the way you gather customer feedback?

Nick Wassenberg
E.G. Insight

In our work with clients, we help them to understand the confidence that their key customers have in their current and future ability to meet their needs. Among other things, many clients are interested to know whether their responsiveness to customers is perceived as a core strength or an opportunity for greater focus and improvement. Using our Customer Review process, our clients often include responsiveness as one of the performance factors they ask their customers to evaluate. The goal is to assess customers’ perceptions of such things as accessibility (are you there when I call?), willingness to listen, desire to help, and speed of response.

But is being highly responsive enough?

After reading comments in thousands of our clients’ customer interviews over the past ten years, it has become apparent that responsiveness doesn’t quite capture what customers are looking for. Any significant customer – particularly those that are highly dependent upon their suppliers – has a minimum expectation that they’re going to be able to reach a live person who can help them when the need arises. Finding a friendly voice at the other end of the phone to help with a quality glitch or shipping delays might be enough to solve the short-term problems, but customers are looking for more from their key suppliers. Responsiveness is what customers expect, but resolution is what they really need.

When asked about the responsiveness of their suppliers, here’s a paraphrase of what many customers say:

“You do a fine job making sure I can reach someone. You are also good at acknowledging my initial request for help or for information. I truly believe that the customer service person or the technical support expert is interested in helping me solve my issue, and most of the time they do. The problem comes when the issue to be solved is beyond their level of authority or expertise – when others in your organization have to get involved. So yes, you generally meet my needs for the initial response, but getting to the point of resolution on a more complex issue – that’s another story.”

In order to go beyond that first level of responsiveness, companies need to make sure that the people on the front line have a defined process for getting the resources required to resolve a customer concern. Companies spend a great deal of time and money equipping their customer service personnel with knowledge, skills and tools to solve and track customer issues – but the job is not yet complete. Beyond that first call for help, customers want:

• A plan for resolving the issue
• A timeline for implementing the plan
• Regular status updates from a trusted contact
• Direct interaction with those actually working on the solution
• Clear and candid communication when the solution is not forthcoming

The takeaway: For business-to-business suppliers and service providers, emphasizing the responsiveness of your frontline employees isn’t sufficient. The goal must be resolution – a shared understanding with the customer on the outcome of a particular need or request.

Eric Engwall, Managing Partner
E.G. Insight

In accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures, filmmaker Martin Scorsese quoted Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” That got me thinking…

Maybe that’s why your customers keep bringing up issues that you think are long resolved—the need for proactive support, responsive customer service reps, or trained technical staff. To you, it’s history. To your customer, it’s not even past. Your company’s “old” performance failure could still be bothering them—chipping away at their confidence and having them wonder if you can meet their company’s needs in the future.

So, how do you know if something is still bothering your customers? How do you help your customers move from “you didn’t fix this fast enough” to “I know I can rely on you”?

The answer: You have a different kind of conversation — one which allows you to dig deeper, to listen not just to the result, but the cause; to not just the words, but the emotions. Performance failures are painful — and memorable—because they cost customers something. When your company’s delivery is late or customer service is unavailable, it can result in worry, overtime, increased costs, and a spike in blood pressure for your customers.

Like in any relationship, people aren’t really ready to move on until you “get it.” Find out not only what went wrong, but why it went wrong. Learn how the error impacted them—personally. Find out how your solution was received. (What worked about it and what didn’t?) Is there work that you still need to do?

It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Which brings to mind something else Scorsese once said:

“There’s no such thing as simple. Simple is hard.”

Rhonda Sunnarborg, Senior Consultant
E.G. Insight

As a company that helps other organizations listen to their customers, we also make a point to actively gather feedback from our own clients. And when gathering feedback from our clients, we’re often reminded of just how important the act of listening can be to a company’s strategy.

“The Customer Review process transformed this organization into a listening company, helped us shift the focus to the customer, fostered open and honest discussion, and took down lots of silos within our company.”
- President, Global Construction Materials Manufacturer

That is certainly a nice testimonial – and we’re grateful for it – but I think there’s a lesson in it too.

What makes this statement compelling is the language. It’s powerful, genuine, and distinct. Honestly, it’s the exact type of thing we’d love to hear from all our clients. (And the kind of quote we’d like our prospects to hear.)

But we probably wouldn’t have described the Customer Review process quite that way. It took a client to give us a fresh way to look at both our services and ourselves.

The takeaway: When you ask for customer feedback, you can get more than just operational improvement suggestions; sometimes you get a new way to see yourself.

Nick Wassenberg
E.G. Insight

When thinking about business-to-business customers, we rarely think about pizza chains - but maybe we should. Consider Domino’s Pizza: Advances in technology have helped improve their internal communication, shortened the time it takes to fulfill orders, and allow you to order a pizza online. Technology has been a huge part of Domino’s value proposition.

But they haven’t stopped there. In early 2009, Dominos tore a page out of the UPS playbook to let their customers track their orders in real time. That’s right, using Domino’s Web-based “Pizza Tracker,” you can follow your pizza from order to prep, bake, quality check, and finally delivery.

What does this mean if you don’t deliver pizzas, or don’t have customers demanding that kind of order visibility?

The takeaway is that your direct competitors aren’t the only benchmark for your customers’ expectations and preferences. Your customers’ requirements for things like responsiveness, quality, and support are influenced every day by many different companies.

The point is that customers - yes, even business-to-business customers - don’t experience your products or services on an island. After all, if customers can track a shipment online with UPS, why can’t they track their dinner too?

Asking the right questions when gathering feedback can uncover which products, services, or technologies shape your customers’ expectations. Having that knowledge can help you prioritize your investments based on real feedback, not just assumptions.

Nick Wassenberg, Research Analyst
E.G. Insight

As we look forward to 2010, we also reflect on what we’ve learned during the past year. One way to do this is to check out E.G. Insight’s “top five” postings for 2009—the most frequently visited articles at www.eginsight.com/news

Each of the top posts listed below share common themes of rebuilding relationships, using customer feedback to inspire action, or best practices in business-to-business customer feedback.

Feel free to browse any you may have missed. We’ll continue to build on these themes in 2010 and we look for your input regarding other topics you’d like us to cover. Thanks for reading!

1. B2B Customer Satisfaction Survey: Advanced Analysis Methods for Impact
2. Beyond Customer Satisfaction: What Really Makes B2B Customers Loyal?
3. The Collapse of Supplier Trust – and Four Steps to
   Rebuild It
4. The Seven Deadly Sins of a B2B Voice of the Customer Program – and How to Avoid Them
5. The Method is the Message
   

Think for a moment about the word “relationship.” What does it mean to you?

The dictionary defines relationship as: “Connection, association; involvement; dependent on something else for significance…”

When I think about the strongest relationships I have with my suppliers, two words come to mind: trust and predictability. I trust them to have my best interests in mind whenever we do business; I trust them to treat me fairly; I trust them to deliver, on time, on budget, doing what they say they will do when they say they will. Because I trust them, I can predict their behavior; I know they will come through for me. I trust them to maintain our good relationship.

Here’s another way to think about relationships: In this day of product and price parity, the one thing that you have that competitors can’t duplicate are your relationships. Your relationships with key customers are unique.

Good relationships help us win the close ones. They help us recover from minor mistakes. Good relationships don’t help when our price is twice our competitors. They don’t help very much when the competitor is the customer’s brother or cousin. They don’t help if we make repeated huge mistakes in quality or delivery.

In this economy, many supplier/customer relationships are the same way - it’s about the close ones. The difference between success and failure is often very slight. Strong relationships can make the difference between winning and losing.

Are your relationships strong enough to help you win the close ones? What can you do to earn more trust from your customers? Do you know how to strengthen the relationships with your most valuable customers?

Gary Gerds, Managing Partner
E.G. Insight

In a previous post I mentioned what it meant to be a Trusted Advisor in your customers’ eyes. After sharing that, I started thinking about what a Trusted Advisor actually looks like.

Well, for me it looks like Butch. Butch is my auto mechanic. He is also one of my Trusted Advisors.

I have told countless people about Butch. Butch knows more about cars and trucks than anyone I know. He has a fully equipped backyard garage in which he routinely performs miracles.

Butch is knowledgeable, honest, and willing to help. I bring Butch my vehicle problems and he provides solutions. Sometimes his solutions involve work he no longer does. He no longer works on differentials or transmissions. In his words: “I leave that to the experts who specialize in that type of work and have the tools and equipment to do the job right.” The fact that Butch clearly tells me what he can and cannot do increases his credibility with me. He does not say “yes” when he really means “maybe.”

I tell everyone about Butch. I trust him. He has my best interests at heart, even when it means losing business. I trusted him with my daughter’s car when she was driving back and forth to college. I trust him with my wife’s vehicle. I pay him a fair price for the work he does. I know it is a fair price because he told me it was fair and I have no reason to doubt him.

Let’s summarize: I trust Butch, he solves my problems, he is knowledgeable about what he can and can’t do, he has my best interests at heart, and he is fair. That’s what it takes to be a Trusted Advisor.

Here are three questions: Who are your Trusted Advisors? Which of your customers think of you as their Trusted Advisor? How do your know?

Gary Gerds, Managing Partner
E.G. Insight

Folk singer Judy Collins, recalling one of her early encounters with Bob Dylan, said: “I saw this schlubby-looking guy singing Woody Guthrie songs badly…I thought he was so pathetic. But then I heard Blowin’ in the Wind, and I couldn’t believe that this rumpled guy could have written such a breathtaking song…then I realized that this guy is brilliant and I became a passionate, passionate fan.”

What changed Collins’ perception from schlubby to brilliant? The power of hearing Dylan—in his own words.

Nothing is as powerful as hearing directly from our most valued customers. Do you want to find out what your company is doing well? Do you need to find out what you must improve? Do you need to know how your customer’s world is changing?

We all don’t speak in poetry, but we’ve all had our turn at being surprised by what our customers are telling us. That’s why it’s important to have structured conversations and let customers tell us what they think—in their own words.

Rhonda Sunnarborg, Senior Consultant
E.G. Insight

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