Move over marketing researchers, and make room for social media.
That’s what we’ve been hearing for several years now. Today a plethora of websites make it possible for consumers to read what others have to say about everything from hotels to hospitals, restaurants to repair services, and caterers to car dealerships. These same sites also make it possible for consumers to share their own experiences, often in the form of ratings and open-ended comments very similar to those captured via traditional service quality or customer satisfaction surveys.
Some argue that as the number and accessibility of such websites increase, traditional survey research will be increasingly unnecessary, because the type of data typically furnished by surveys will be public and essentially “there for the taking.” Indeed, a 2011 article appearing in the online edition of Advertising Age, proclaimed “the top research executive of likely the world’s largest research buyer expects surveys to dramatically decline in importance by 2020, and sees the rise of social media as a big reason why.”[1] The article quoted Joan Lewis, Global Consumer and Market Knowledge Officer at Procter and Gamble, as saying companies “should get away from believing that a (single) method, particularly survey research, will be the solution to anything,” and that “the more people see two-way engagement and being able to interact with people all over the world, I think the less they will want to be involved in structured research.”
There is little doubt that companies increasingly are relying on social media to capture the Voice of the Customer (VoC) in hopes of gaining insights about how to improve customer experiences.
But, is the ability to harvest data from consumer and social media really a key to building an effective VoC program?
MaritzCX recently conducted our 2014 Voice of the Customer Challenges and Practices survey. We interviewed 377 managers in “blue chip” companies regarding their current VoC processes and practices. These managers were asked to assess the overall effectiveness of the respective VoC programs, and to describe critical challenges encountered as they continue to try to capture and leverage customer feedback.
Results reveal that nearly two-thirds of the managers we surveyed have developed and implemented an effective method of “monitoring consumer and social media.” In contrast, 32% indicated that they are “still looking for an effective method” to monitor consumer and social media, and 10% of this group said that this is the “most important” challenge for which they “must find a solution during the next 12 months.”
These findings clearly suggest that most organizations take consumer and social media seriously, regardless of whether they have figured out how capture and leverage it.
But here’s a little secret...
One of the questions we asked managers was “How effective has your VoC program been at helping you improve customer satisfaction?” We were curious to see if managers who said their respective VoC programs had been “very successful” at helping improve customer satisfaction were more likely to have developed and implemented an effective method of monitoring consumer and social media than managers who said their VoC programs had been only “somewhat successful,” or “not very successful.”
Guess what we found?
Having an effective method of monitoring consumer and social media is not strongly related to VoC-driven improvements in customer satisfaction. Sixty-seven (67) percent of organizations that have been “very successful” in using the VoC to improve customer satisfaction have implemented an effective method of monitoring consumer and social media. This is slightly greater than the same percentage in organizations that have been “somewhat successful” (63%) or “not very successful” (60%), but the differences are not statistically different.
In effect, about two-thirds of all organizations have a method of monitoring consumer and social media, and another third are still seeking such a method – and this pattern holds regardless of whether those firms have been very successful in using the VoC to improve customer satisfaction or not.
So, while nearly all organizations are paying considerable attention to consumer and social media, the ability simply to draw data from such media appears to contribute little to the effectiveness of their VoC programs. This finding should make executives and managers pause and consider whether the time, energy, and investment they are making in social media monitoring is justified. It also should prompt them to re-visit the issue of how best to use social media to manage and improve customer experience.
In fact, here are some questions you should be asking about your own organization’s focus on social media:
- How much of your organization’s total “customer listening” is devoted to consumer and social media?
- How does the organization use information drawn from consumer/social media?
- What improvements in customer satisfaction and retention can directly be linked to the organization’s efforts to monitor and use information drawn from consumer/social media?
How did you answer these questions? What do the answers tell you about whether your organization is getting the most from its investment in consumer/social media monitoring?
Now for the good news: Capturing and leveraging social media can have a very positive impact on the effectiveness of a VoC program in improving customer satisfaction and retention.
How? I’ll answer that question in my next blog. Stay tuned!