Customer Knowledge will be covered in 2 posts. Part 1 will discuss Voice of the Customer (VOC) and Part 2 will discuss Critical to Quality Tree (CTQ).
Topic 1. Customer Knowledge Voice of the Customer (VOC Part 1)
- Can you articulate the requirements that are critical to your customers?
- How many critical requirements does your customer have?
- Do you know how your customers measure their critical requirements?
The first step in capturing your customer’s requirements is to get a handle on the types of expectations that all customers have. An easy way to think of them is spoken, unspoken, and unknown expectations.
Spoken Expectations are those that we get by simply asking the customer what they want. These are upper most in their minds; and to the degree we meet those expectations our customers are satisfied, and to the degree we don’t meet their expectations we create dissatisfaction.
For example; the quality of the fit and finish, does the color match the color sample, is my order delivered fast or slow.
Unspoken Expectations are typically so basic they are not upper most in their minds. They normally don’t think of them until we fail to provide them. If my hamburger is delivered cold then obviously I’ll say something, but if it’s hot I don’t even think about my expectation of temperature.
Unknown Expectations are hard to find out because they are beyond your customer’s articulated needs. Not providing an unknown expectation won’t dissatisfy, but if provided can wow the customer. When the Motorola Razr was first introduced it was the hot phone, no one knew to ask for an iPhone.
Very few were aware that the technology to support an iPhone existed; much less, thought to add that to their cell phone requirements list.
For our purpose here, let’s work with Spoken Expectations. One of the best ways to capture your customer’s wants and needs is to start with a technique known as Voice of the Customer, which helps summarize a customer’s expectations.
Voice of the Customer research starts with a series of interviews focused on the customer’s experiences with your product or service. From these interviews a good understanding of the customer’s expectations can be documented.
Keep in mind that VOC interviews should not be used for solving customer problems, selling opportunities, telling the customer how your product or service should be used, or validating the features you think should be included in a product or service.
Before contacting a customer, be sure to plan the interview by putting together an interview guide. The guide should be an outline with enough space on the form to capture write in what your customer is saying.
Voice of the Customer Interview Guide
If you’ve never conducted a VOC interview, this example is a good starting point. You can change the order of the questions; or add a few of your own open ended questions. Customize it to suit your situation. Let your team members contribute to creating the guide.
VOC Interview
Company Being Interviewed:
Interviewee:
Product or Service Type:
Interviewer:
Date:
- How long have you used our product/service?
- Would you mind walking me through a recent experience?
- What was the best experience you’ve had with our product?
- Why do you prefer that?
- What is the worst experience you’ve had with our service?
- Why do you feel that way?
- How does that impact the way you do your job?
- Why is that important?
- Could you give an example of . . . . . . . .?
- Why does that interest you?
- Can you think of a case when . . . . . . . . ?
- Why do you say that?
- Which features do you prefer?
- Why would that be better?
- What else?
Okay, so you’ve completed your interview and have collected the following needs as expressed by your customers:
Voice of the Customer Interview Responses
- I would like a vehicle that is remarkably easy to launch, with not too much wheel spin, and sporty shift times.
- I’m looking for something that is reasonably fuel efficient and is fairly quiet at highway speeds.
- I’m okay if the braking is average I don’t plan on doing 100 mph. I would like solid pedal feel throughout, a little fade is okay as long as I have an acceptable stopping distance.
- I want good handling with a sporty and well-controlled suspension, with an excellent feel in the slalom, responsive and sense of control. It would be nice if the body motions that are well-controlled and a chassis that is stable even over mid-corner bumps.
Well that’s interesting; but you might ask, how do I turn that into something actionable? The responses from the interview will have to be converted into customer requirements.
In the next post of Business Performance Measurement Series Topic 1. Customer Knowledge Critical to Quality Tree (CTQ Part 2) we will discuss how to convert customer expectations to critical requirements using the Critical to Quality Tree.