Voice of customers an ignored asset, speaker tells businesspeople

DEER VALLEY — Equipment. Employees. Brand recognition.

Those are among companies' assets, but listening to customers? It's both an obvious and ignored asset, a group of business representatives were told Monday.

"I'm here to tell you that when it comes to how effective companies are at looking at their customer feedback, understanding and doing something about it, they're hardly doing it at all," Bruce Temkin, customer experience "transformist" and managing partner at Temkin Group, told a crowd of more than 180 at the 2010 Allegiance Engage Summit.

Allegiance, based in South Jordan, is a customer and employee feedback analysis firm.

Temkin told the crowd of customer-service officials that the "voice of the customer" is "an untapped asset."

"There aren't many untapped assets inside companies, right? We've figured out how to do financial manipulation a lot. We've streamlined engineering processes, right? We have some really fine-tuned marketing processes. But when it comes to where there is extreme value in companies that have not been taken advantage of yet, you guys are at the forefront," he said.

Good customer experiences translate into improved customer loyalty, but oftentimes the needs, desires, interests and knowledge that customers have differ from those of companies, Temkin said. Often, corporate politics and egos derail a focus on customers.

"How do we infuse the perspective of our customers into the decisions that we make as a company?" he asked. "How do we get away from that internal point of view? How do we create an outside-in culture and process that drives our business?"

Listening to customers is only one element, with response and monitoring of changes among the others.

Using music from the movie "Aladdin" as an analogy, Temkin said "a whole new world" awaits companies truly focused on customer satisfaction.

"It doesn't happen overnight. It's a journey. It's a journey that takes time," he said. "But I guarantee you that you are on a great path because voice of the customer is a powerfully untapped asset, and if you stay focused, you will in fact find a very happy ending."

Vicky Stennes, vice president of in-flight experience for JetBlue Airways, stressed the importance of having crew members who are emotionally bonded to each other, to customers and to the company to ensure "magnificent" service.