Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Reputation and Brand Image: using Voice of the Customer in your CRM

"Risk" is all over the news. In business Risk and Crisis Management are critical skills. Process-wise, nowhere in your business model is more suited to support risk and crisis management than "voice of the customer work." In today's world, when often the first thing people do is "to google" a subject, what does the world see about you? when the subject of that google search is The Company, what first impression does the web present; and, what problems are made evident that call into a "shadowy realm" either your Brand or your Reputation? Actually, there is, in all likelihood, a wealth of opportunity in that evidence. Evidence to be mined and tested and acted upon in your customer relationship management communications efforts.

We believe that the best CRM initiatives help to monitor in near-real-time that treasure of opportunity and use their customer insight work to connect back to the marketplace so as to manage the language of the marketplace and ensure that the company's values align with their targeted audience and customers to demonstrate evidence.

Companies must use their customer insight and "voice of the customer"and other market research activities as a vital, living, actionable and connected part of their CRM initiatives. In today's world, "the winners" will use their CRM projects to ensure that "voice of the customer" work is fed back into the knowledge management and activities of day to day business. These same companies will go the extra mile to ensure that their corporate values are aligned with the values of their key stakeholders. These companies will be able to align the softer elements of business: values - culture - brand- reputation- and customer experience. Coordination and cooperation across all functional areas will grow more critical.

For more than one pundit has concluded that "companies that do the best aligning their corporate values with key stakeholder values will rule the marketplace."

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