They say that strong communication is the key to any healthy relationship.  The principle holds true, of course, for both home and work.

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And while the role of the service and support organization is primarily to be a communicator—and in fact many organizations we work with have upskilled staff on all sorts of tactics for improved interpersonal communication with customers—we’re apparently doing a poor job when it comes to communicating with cross-functional colleagues, particularly as it relates to cascading voice of the customer data.

Here are the facts from this CCC  research on sharing Voice of the Customer (VOC) with internal business partners:

• 76.6% of business partners are not satisfied with the current VOC insight provided by customer service
• 65.9% of business partners do not recommend VOC provided by customer service

All of this in spite of the fact that 58.5% of business partners believe that VOC is extremely important.  It looks like we have an opportunity here, but we simply aren’t taking advantage of it.

So how to ensure the resources we invest in customer insight reporting are worthwhile?  One (relatively) simple tactic: Align the information with what your colleagues actually need.

Too frequently the service and support organization sends thick data files over to colleagues on topics that simply miss the mark—data is too tactical, it comes two days too late, it’s not specific to a particular function, it’s not on a topic the business partner cares about, etc.  As a result, the majority of colleagues simply ignore the insights.

So what are the best companies doing to overcome this?

• Align insights with corporate strategy—This is a surefire way to ensure the data you collect resonates and is relevant.
• Ask business partners what they need—CCC has an assessment tool that can easily surface colleagues’ needs, but even establishing a basic understanding of a function’s strategic goals through a brief conversation is a good starting point.
• Translate insights into $—Data related to hold time is of little interest to colleagues outside the contact center, so help colleagues see the revenue and customer impact.  For example, a financial services company we work with logs every instance in which it says “no” to a customer; capturing the customer impact in this way resonates so well that the service organization is able to make the case for substantial process improvements.

The good news is if you do this well, not only will you resource more efficiently, but you’ll also increase the service and support organization’s relevance to the business.  And in this environment, I don’t know any service and support leaders who would pass up that opportunity.

Have we missed any tactics here?  We’d be keen to hear your thoughts.

CCC Members, Learn your business partners’ preferences for VOC data and insight by launching CCC’s VOC-Sharing Health Assessment.  And learn more about how to communicate customer impact by logging “no”s.

Related posts:

1. Twitter: Real VOC or Squeaky Wheel?
2. FCR: How Accurate Is Your Data?
3. Venturing into the Realm of “Good Enough”