The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers

MOVE FROM DATA TO INSIGHT TO ACTION

Metrics can help a business evaluate its bottom-line success and reveal areas of potential concern, but it is the right data and keen insights that drive real change.

Metrics have to tell a story. Gone are the days when a few charts and reports were all that were required. To demonstrate impact, we need to help everyone in our organization understand why we are focused on these areas and how they make a difference to the company. Telling senior management that “customer engagement scores have increased for the past eight quarters” is somewhat interesting, but telling senior management that “in this same time period, quarterly sales increased 8 percent, on average, and a steady decline in customer attrition of 24 percent has been associated with increased customer engagement” really starts to tell a story.2

This may require a new way of thinking for market research teams that aren't used to sharing this type of information. According to Chris Cottle, Executive VP of Marketing and Products at Allegiance, Inc., a leading provider of Voice-of-the-Customer (VOC) solutions, successful VOC programs have strong leaders who can deliver a business story around the reasons behind a customer-centric focus. It's not enough to prove a program is effective; it's equally important that others buy into it.

The best approach is to focus on a few key metrics that support business goals, then use our customer feedback data and analytics to help provide actionable ...