Mr. Johnson

Sales & Marketing

Let the 'Voice of the Customer' Drive Bottom Line Results

By Mark Johnson, President, Loyalty 360 - The Loyalty Marketer’s Association

“Voice of the customer”

It’s a phrase that’s getting a lot of play these days. As avenues for customer input and interaction - forums, blogs, social networking sites, online reviews, etc - are growing exponentially, the opportunity for guests to rave about great hotel experiences or vent about bad ones are more prevalent than ever. This in-the-moment ability to get into their customers’ heads gives marketers the proverbial crystal ball look into their needs, wants, likes, dislikes, etc. The question many marketers have, however, is how to use this voice of the customer feedback to drive bottom line business results.

The answer is twofold: Listen and Act

Step one - Listen, and I mean really LISTEN. Not in a lip service fashion, but listen with the belief that there is wisdom in crowds. Listen with the purpose that small is the new big. One blogger, one reviewer, one online community not addressed can have serious impacts on a brand.

To stress further the value of listening to the online chatter about your hotel, consider these findings from travel market researcher PhocusWright. The firm found that social networking is one of the most powerful forces driving travel planning today, with social media use among travelers growing far faster than the travel industry itself. Unique monthly visitors to social travel sites jumped 34% between the first half of 2008 and the last half of 2009.

A survey in March 2010 by The Nielsen Company of more than 27,000 Internet users in 55 markets from Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America and South America also found that online reviews and peer recommendations played a key role for shoppers researching future travel purchases. Pity the brand that consumers don’t like: a whopping 41% of online consumers said they are more likely to share a negative product experience online via posting on Twitter or writing a review.

There’s no denying that travelers are online talking about your hotel. Being truly committed to listening to what they’re saying (hearing the good, bad and in between) and engaging them requires a corporate mandate guided by a visionary leader who compels the organization to look at their actions and address these questions honestly:

• When companies say they are committed to voice of the customer, yet they are only focused on call center responses, is that a true voice of the customer?
• Or when companies say they are committed to voice of the customer, yet they are only focused on social, mobile and emerging media responses, is that a true voice of the customer?
• Or when companies say they are committed to voice of the customer, yet they only use third party opt-in data, is that a true voice of the customer?

As these questions convey, embracing the voice of the customer and unleashing its strategic power depends on a hotel’s willingness to be flexible, open to learning, and dedicated to being not just a provider of goods and services - but a true relationship partner.

Step two - Act. Listening cannot be strategic if marketers don’t take action on what they hear. Hotels need to monitor the online chatter about their brand, engage in a dialogue with guests and prospective guests, and then act on the data mined from these conversations. Giving voice to customers suggests that a company is interested in hearing from them, in giving them their say, so that improvements can be made and creative initiatives launched. Unless feedback leads to concrete change, customers become frustrated.

CustomerThink Corp’s 2010 white paper, “Voice of the Customer 2.0: Social, Agile, Integrated,” identified three key aspects of Voice of the Customer I believe are very important to call out:

1. Social media is an important new source of feedback, not only from customers, but also from market influencers.
2. Enterprises must capitalize on dynamic unstructured and unsolicited feedback to spot emerging trends and flashpoints before they turn into a public relations nightmare.
3. Executives must translate insight into action. And that requires deep integration into existing customer support processes.

Once you listen you need to react with the purpose to engage and empower the dialogue with your audience. There’s no doubt the pendulum has swung from the brand to the client. For every success story that becomes lore within this new “social community” and “engagement marketing” space, we hear five where the “visionary” that sold them on the new technology that would revolutionize their brand, their company, their product, their offering has failed. That’s because it comes down to commitment and a realization that the world of marketing is going to be more dynamic now than it has ever been. Customers, clients, employees, brand participants want control. Yet control means engaging in an interactive dialogue with the brand and brand participants. It means making the input for the various channels concise, relevant, interesting and actionable.

“Voice of the customer programs are often an integral component of improving customer experience, but most companies are still figuring out how to truly respond to customer feedback,” says Bruce Temkin, Managing Partner of Temkin Group, in a recent press release. “They need to spend more of their time helping their companies take action based on meaningful insights.” When they do this…. The results are apparent.

Temkin Group recently asked 82 North American companies with $500+ million in annual revenues with formal voice of customer programs, “How would you describe the impact that your voice of the customer program has had on your company?” The results:

• Positive impact: 83%
• Minimal or no impact: 5%
• Negative impact: 1%
• It’s too early to tell: 11%

As is evident from these findings, when executed properly, an overwhelming percentage of companies get value from their VoC programs.

CDW is one such company. Named a winner of the Voice of the Customer Awards 2010 at Forrester Research’s recent Customer Experience Forum, the technology solutions provider stood out for its listening process that goes beyond service recovery. CDW surveys thousands of its customers annually and creates “hot alerts” to immediately follow up with customers based on their responses. One type of alert notifies salespeople of opportunities to enrich existing client relationships, which drove millions of dollars in additional revenue for the firm in 2009.

Dell was also a winner a 2010 Voice of the Customer Award. The technology manufacturer stood out for its significant focus on employee and customer collaboration. Dell’s IdeaStorm and EmployeeStorm programs let customers and employees share ideas for new products and services, hundreds of which have already been implemented. The firm also uses customer ratings and reviews to drive product enhancements, and it challenges engineers to earn average ratings of 4.5/5 stars for new products.

What’s the lesson for hotel marketers?

Listening has (and always should be) a key competency for marketers. And in today’s customer-focused word, being a strategic listener is more important than ever. Listening and then leveraging what is heard --- the voice of the customer – offers hotels an effective way to show guests and prospective guests that you value their feedback which, in turn, improves quality and service, builds loyalty and brand advocacy, and drives sustainable business results.

Mark Johnson is President and CEO of Loyalty 360 - The Loyalty Marketer’s Association. Loyalty 360 is the only organization that addresses the full spectrum of both customer and employee loyalty issues. An unbiased, market driven clearinghouse and think-tank for loyalty and engagement opportunities, insights, and responses, Loyalty 360 is the source business leaders trust for industry metrics, market driven research, case studies, and networking opportunities. A sought-after speaker and writer, Mr. Johnson is frequently called upon by media worldwide to share his expert insights into customer and employee loyalty issues. Mr. Johnson can be contacted at 513-290-5147 or markjohnson@loyalty360.org Extended Bio...

HotelExecutive.com retains the copyright to the articles published in the Hotel Business Review. Articles cannot be republished without prior written consent by HotelExecutive.com.