I was recently interviewed by Tom Hoffman of the 1to1 Blog about the growing use of smartphones and how it is affecting the collection of customer feedback. In the interview, I mentioned that it is important to first realize that today’s customers are in charge of the conversation. They want to speak to the company [...]

Capitalizing on customer feedback requires more than the occasional sending of surveys in response to ad hoc business needs. It requires a strategic and ongoing dedication to hearing, listening, understanding and acting upon the VOC through a formal program built upon actively listening to customers and regularly taking a pulse of their level of engagement. [...]

While many business managers see only doom and gloom ahead, some are focusing on a new way to unlock a prosperous future – even in a tough recession. Through the game-changing principle of engagement, companies can learn to use technology and best practices to extract new revenue from their existing customer base.

From our work helping companies make the most of customer and employee feedback, we have developed something we call the feedback progression scale. This scale gives us a way to understand where a business is in terms of using feedback and surveys to grow customer loyalty and engagement. So where are you on the feedback [...]

This blog post discusses the results of a quantitative survey that Allegiance recently conducted with voice of the employee (VOE) practitioners, including human resource vice presidents, directors and managers, as well as other HR-related titles. It also talks about why, in order for companies to create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage once they economy rebounds, they not only need to be actively listening to their employees now in real-time to address and resolve any concerns that they have, but also start putting some strategic measures in place to retain their best and brightest employees.

At the Gartner CRM conference, presenters discussed the convergence between CRM, marketing, voice of the customer (VOC) and customer experience. There’s no doubt that business leaders are getting more savvy, but so is the technology. And, as business practitioners, we have the opportunity to use advanced technology to accomplish things that we have wished would happen for years. In the end though, the “raising of the game” by all practitioners and leaders must happen, too.