Who is Kidding Who? Are You Really Customer-Centric?

Some bad news stories struck me recently. I heard on BBC radio that UK customer service is getting worse (according to the Institute of Customer Service). Plus, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (acsi), a barometer of contentment, also began declining in 2018 and has shed all its gains since 2006. UK consumer confidence fell nine points in October with a 14-point ‘plunge’ in the major purchase index in the run-up to Christmas, according to the GfK Consumer Confidence Index.

Your initial reaction to this news might be what mine was; to climb into a wardrobe with a box of tissues, close the door and cry. It is really hard right now to feel positive, to have a ‘growth mindset’.

The rush to adopting AI as a way to save money in customer service has underpinned a great deal of this frustration. I have never once had a matter resolved successfully by a chat bot. My problems are never in the pre-set question list. And now even if I speak to a real-live person, they too are constrained by short sighted tech which means they cannot make changes or facilitate things which do not comply with the system. It is a hideous vicious circle of disappointment making me and many others abandon brands we were previously loyal to.

Of course, it’s not only AI to ‘blame’. Customer feedback and insight often exists in silos – solving minor, tactical problems daily without getting a higher-level understanding or synthesis. Traditional consumer insights teams, service marketing teams: sensory researchers drive R&D; customer service maintains the call centers and all that data. They often don’t share information with one another, or come up with unified strategies, even if platforms and/or knowledge management processes would allow them to do so.

These stories led me to a question – surely this is the role of insights? How is all the CX and consumer research being used? Whither the efforts to put the voice of customer at the heart of organizations? Clearly our insights are not getting through - and not being acted on at a higher level. 

But we can do something. If our customer stories are not being listened to by organizations, MRX professionals need to improve how they market themselves AND their insights. If we believe in the value of marketing, if we believe in the value of long-term brand building, indeed if we believe that you can use effective communication to influence any audience then we need to act on that.

As my client Begonia Fafian of The Coca-Cola Company said when challenged about the cost of investing in insights communication in a world where budgets are being cut; “you cannot afford not to do this”.

So, this is what this Greenbook Channel is all about. It is all about powerful and effective communication and marketing of market research AND the work we do. It’s for agencies, for them to get better at positioning themselves, marketing, messaging, thought leadership, building their agency brands for long-term growth. And it’s for insights clients, for them to elevate their teams and the work they do, to drive excitement and engagement about customers – to bring to life the voice of the customer at the heart of their organization.

Right now, organizations are listening to customers less, not more. And changing that starts right here.