The Observer Effect lurks in the depths of quantum theory and chucks up a challenge to scientists - the act of measuring something changes the thing that is being measured.
It isn’t just sub-atomic particles – Henry Landsberger believed that he was running into a similar phenomenon in the Hawthorne Works factory in 1950’s Chicago; when workers believed that they were being observed, they changed their behaviour.
The funny thing is, this pops up in the Voice of the Customer world as well and it happened to my Mum.
Sitting on a train heading out of London, my Mum found herself in a very hot, stuffy carriage, with no air conditioning. After a few minutes of uncomfortable overheating, she picked up her mobile and texted East Coast Trains’ Voice of the Customer number to report the broken ventilation.
Within just a few minutes, my Mum got a text back from East Coast Trains apologising for the problems in her specific carriage and just after that, the Train Manager made a further apology over the tannoy.
Sadly, the train was pretty full, so Mum couldn't move to another carriage and sat in greenhouse conditions for over an hour.
Strangely - she told me this story as an example of a GREAT train journey!
When she told the story, she was smiling. She wasn't complaining about the air-con, but commending East Coast Trains of what a great job they did.
They didn't fix the problem.
But they did listen, and acknowledge, and apologise. Just that, the act of listening transformed her journey from a bad experience to a good one and had her recommending East Coast Trains to friends and family!
If you get your VOC right (captured in real-time, in the customers own words) then the VOC process should actually improve your customers’ experience.
Really quite useful, especially if you have a regulator lurking about ready to pounce with a sporadic (and tiny sample size) survey to judge your performance – your VOC can help boost the regulator’s score just by listening and responding to customers.
Your customers are quarks (or any other subatomic particle of your choice). Some are Up, some are Down, a few are Strange and all of them change just by being observed, or asked for their feedback and by being listened to.
Take a look at our Infographic to find out how to gather customer feedback throughout the customer journey:
Sources:
http://www.rantandrave.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Rant-Rave-Case-Studies-East-Coast-Trains.pdf
