Happy Stats: Demystifying Customer Research
By Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson
We both recently had our physical exams—that annual ritual complete with thumbs, pricks, “turn your head and cough,” and the predictable prescription to loose a few pounds and get more exercise. But, this year we got a surprise. Our doctors, on learning we both enjoyed an occasional evening adult beverage, responded affirmatively.
Doctors of yesteryear approached a physical examination with a mental picture of a perfect body and searched for gaps between that flawless image and the specimen under their cold stethoscope. As a patient, you were always imperfect. Despite watching the scales and turning down that scrumptious dessert, you forever seemed to come up short. Every physical ended with new promises to keep and old habits to break. But, our doctors gave us both a new picture of well-being —happy was as important as healthy; enjoying the human speedometer was as vital as increasing the human odometer.
Customer research has for years labored under the weight of purity. Survey research was held in the backroom to be analyzed, scrutinized and sanitized often delaying its delivery to those who could benefit from it until it was obsolete by the time it arrived. Focus group discussions were delegated to outside firms fueled by the myth that external was necessary for objectivity. Research results were presented with the exhilaration of watching paint dry and the wit of a root canal. Customer research was always pure—healthy, if you will. But, only statisticians found it happy.
The Real Constituency
Your father’s doctor had his professional status on the line. That’s why he (they were all generally “he’s”) personal introduction always lead with his title: “Good morning, I’m DOCTOR Jones,” like you might look at his white coat with the stethoscope around his neck and conclude he was a plumber. Patient records were “for his eyes only.” He always made sure to keep patients at arms length by using a few fifty-nine cent words he knew the patient did not comprehend. Patronizing language, no respecter of the patient’s time, and the bedside manner of brainy scientist, he never let your father forget that medicine was a secret domain only penetrable by the chosen few.
Customer research has had a similar arrogance in many organizations. Analogous tactics were employed to mask the fact that “the data belonged to the user, not to the scientist.” Customer research should serve many constituencies in an organization. It is a tool for important executive planning, a means to validate, alter and refine decisions made both on behalf of the customer as well as the organization, a device to shape the practices and behaviors of customer-facing individuals, and a means to lend verifiable evidence to important coaching conversations.
When customer research is planned, conducted and communicated with these ultimate constituencies in mind, it alters the “how.” There are countless ways implementation can completely change when the “customer” is kept in mind and the customer research is conducted in a customer-centric fashion. If the “customer” is the “user of the research,” then all the principles of “customer engagement” are applied. For example, when frontline people call their customers to let them know they will be surveyed (but not to conduct the survey), it spreads the quest for feedback to everyone.
When line managers are asked to help shape the content of the research, they begin to own it. When results are shared with the frontline almost while the ink is still wet, and in a way a teller can easily comprehend the information without need of complex PowerPoint graphs and charts, it says “this data is for you.” When external customers feel loyal, they make suggestions for improvements; when internal colleagues feel loyal to “their customer research,” line managers start sending in survey questions to be considered for the next customer query or, they ask when the next survey is going out and can we do it more often than once a year.
Customer-centric customer research is easier to understand, easy to use, and malleable as the customer changes. While there are constants, important to tracking progress, it is always customized. The components relevant today may not be the components relevant forever. Customer-centric customer research takes seriously its role as a mentoring device. It is richest when it fosters understanding, not simply conveys information. It is valued when it fulfils its many roles as a pathfinder, as early warning, and as an insight-producer.
Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson are customer loyalty consultants. Their newest book is Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers (NY: Wiley, May, 2009). They can be reached through http://www.taketheirbreathaway.com/.
