Companies that have gone to market with a differentiation statement on service or experience have a higher cause than just making money. Customers buy into this vision and brand; the idea that they’re different in the market place.
They respect the reason the company is doing things in a certain way, and they want to have a stake in it.
So it’s a real shame when companies seem to forget the Voice of the Brand when it comes to customer feedback. Reminding customers about your brand, your position and your cause, plays into their motivations and what they want from you.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Loch Fyne, for example, uses ‘Don’t clam up’ as their call to action for its customer feedback. It’s aligned to the brand; it raises a smile and it’s a nice example of bringing the Voice of your Brand across to the Voice of the Customer. The LEGO® Customer Service Portal is another great example. It clearly includes elements of their branding - demonstrating the fun nature of the brand - without losing the purpose of the portal.
Incorporating the Voice of your Brand into your Voice of the Customer efforts is not just something for the big brands to consider. Smaller companies can also integrate the Voice of their Brand within their Voice of the Customer programme.
Bob and Lush (a premium dog food company) is a great example of a company that does this. After a customer places their first order, they’re sent a feedback form. What’s nice (and different) about this is how it positions the feedback request by asking questions like “How does your dog like the food?”. Essentially, they’re asking the dog, not the owner, for their opinion. As a brand, Bob and Lush have clearly understood how much owners love their dogs, and have used this by creating a feedback mechanism which almost asks the dog for feedback through their customers.
As well as this, Bob and Lush offer no freebies or incentives for the feedback, it was done on the basis of advocacy - the idea that customers are bought into the product and you’re bought into the brand because you love your pet. They’re not trying to buy feedback or input from customers, they’re inviting the customers that care about the brand to share their thoughts and feelings in an effort to make the brand better for everyone.
Incentivising might seem like the solution to increase feedback responses and also liven up your feedback but, often, it leads to the wrong type of insight and not as much verbatim as you might want. It encourages people who want the freebie, rather than the people who want the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings because they’re emotionally invested in making your brand even better.
There are ways of encouraging people to leave feedback and still get the right type of insight, but it takes more thought and structure. For example, ask customers to enter a competition for their most insightful or innovative idea. Customers are therefore competing on the strength of their feedback, which will typically lead to more valuable insight.
To find out more about how you can align the Voice of your Brand to your Voice of the Customer strategy to make your feedback a bit more fun, take a look at our full eBook: How to Put the Fun Back into Customer Feedback:
