Democratising the voice of consumers, part 1
In the most progressive organisations, getting close to consumers is everyone’s responsibility. So what can you do to make everyone as consumer-obsessed as you are? It is a matter of culture and technology. In this first post, we will talk about culture and some simple behaviours that will encourage everyone to get better at listening to the voice of the consumer.
There isn’t much marketers seem to agree on these days. But there’s one thing even the staunchest contrarian will not argue with. We should all listen to consumers. Understanding what consumers or customers feel, the challenges they face and why they make the choices they make, should be at the heart of every business.
73% say their company is good or very good at listening to customers
Only 37% say they are good at leveraging insights across different departments
In our recent survey of CMOs and Marketing Directors, the gap between listening to customers and sharing insights was stark. It suggests that listening to consumers is still treated as a departmental responsibility, rather than a company-wide value. It is someone’s job to do the listening.
But in the most progressive businesses, getting close to consumers is everyone’s responsibility. In these businesses, the voice of consumer is everywhere and influences everything.
Broadly, it take two things to democratise the voice of the consumer like this: culture and technology. In the next post, we will dive into technology and the ongoing digital transformation of insights. But even the most sophisticated tech solution is doomed to fail without the right culture.
Culture is the set of values, attitudes and norms that shape the behaviour of people in an organisation.
It comes from the top but lives in the day-to-day. Many leaders are good at articulating a vision of consumer-centricity (according to our survey, 4 in 5 leaders advocate for it), but most culture is unwritten and learnt through social interactions and observation of others. Norms trump vision - or as Peter Drucker famously said, culture eats strategy for breakfast.
80% of senior marketers believe their leaders are advocates for greater customer-centricity, and willing to invest in it
We are social apes and we learn through imitation. So culture is both driven by and influences behaviour. To democratise the voice of the consumer, companies need to democratise the behaviours that help their people listen to and discuss consumers’ needs. Here are a few initiatives and approaches we have used over the years to empower everyone to get closer to consumers.
Eavesdropping
Encourage everyone to listen into customer service or sales calls. Sit at a bar and hear the conversations that happen before the drinks are ordered. If you work in a service industry, go out and serve some customers. Get out of your bubble and into the lives of real people.
Empathetic research
Any opportunity to see real consumers is great. But traditional focus groups, interviews and surveys create an artificial environment for consumers. And as many studies have suggested, people are not good at articulating what they want or why they do the things they do.
Getting closer to real consumers means taking a more empathetic approach to consumer research. One where we listen more and attempt to experience some of the same things our consumers do.
Empathy Passport
Walk in the shoes of your consumers and experience what they experience. By taking on a persona and heading out to complete a task, participants are encouraged to see the world through the eyes of real consumers. With the right structure and facilitation, this kind of exercise can reveal so much about the challenges and compromises people face every day. At The Ninety-Niners, our half-day Empathy Passport Workshop includes role-playing real world or digital experiences and understanding how unconscious bias makes empathy hard.
Consumer collaboration
Building a go-to group of consumers for insight is not a new idea. But shifting the emphasis from research and validation, to exploration and co-creation creates more opportunities for genuine listening.
Read your reviews
The first thing I do with any new client is check their reviews. A quick look through Amazon usually reveals the major benefits and barriers for consumers, expressed in their own words. Of course, scaling this up with technology and analytics is great. But simply reading what people have bothered to write about you is an easy, free and universally available tool.
Get real consumers in the room
There is nothing quite as powerful as bringing real consumers into meetings. It can be tempting to focus on recruitment of new customers, but we like to bring the most loyal customers into workshops and hear them articulate what they like and don’t like about the brand and product.
The imaginary consumer
If you can’t get real consumers, represent them in the room. Jeff Bezos famously leaves an empty chair at important meetings to represent the customer and remind everyone of the most important person in their company. A former of client of mine, a Marketing Director of a UK supermarket, would frequently judge creative work by pointing out of the office window at the council houses behind, saying “would they get that?”. Find a ritual that works for you for getting the imaginary consumer in the room.
Whether you’re a consultant, a creative, client or technologist, usually the smartest thing you can say is “what do our real consumers think?”
These are just a few practical suggestions to start empowering your people to be more consumer-centric. These behaviours can build and maintain a culture in which everyone is encouraged to listen for the voice of the consumer.
In part 2, we will look at how the digital transformation of everything is both generating more consumer data than ever and enabling progressive organisations to make sense of it at scale. And why we should all beware of tech evangelists who promise insights out of the box.