Focus On The Voice of the Customer

Highlight Customer Experience

An optimized customer experience can be the difference between a product or application’s success or failure in the marketplace.  These news articles from the business press reinforce what we know to be true: listening to the “voice of the customer” is a powerful effort.  It helps customers accomplish their goals quickly and easily and helps increase customer satisfaction, in turn generating positive business outcomes for the product developer.

Read on for our June roundup of business news that illustrate this:

 Building A Customer Experience When The Experts Are Your Customers  — Not You  (Forbes)

For product and application developers, the author stresses that your customers know more than you, they offer expert knowledge that development teams lack, and that knowledge is available just from the asking.

We enjoyed this piece because it helps encourage teams to think about how to build a customer experience in our age of information. In every field of commerce, the advent of Google and the transportability of Google via mobile phones has turned a garden variety customer into an expert. Potential customers are more informed, tap into knowledge from a variety of sources, and hold the key to designing satisfying products and applications.

 Why Every Enterprise Startup Needs A Killer UX Team (Forbes)

For an enterprise software entrepreneur, what does a design-driven world mean to the company at a practical level?  Better product design typically yields higher product engagement, quicker sales cycles and higher customer lifetime value. The author shares practical tips to consider when building out development teams, suggesting that UX needs representation at a VP-level role.  Of special note are “before and after” examples of enterprise systems after undergoing user testing and user centered design.  This post makes the case that often, startups have an edge in the “race to simplicity” because it’s far easier to create an elegant product from scratch than it is to fix a clunky and complex one.

 Small Businesses Using Tablets Do More, Faster and Better (Chicago Tribune)

This business article makes the case that modern consumers expect speed, mobility and efficiency in all they do, including their interactions with businesses. With the proliferation of enterprise-grade tablets, business users have the power to manage inventory, check customer orders, access HR forms including  scheduling, payroll, time and attendance, and other business tasks all from the convenience of their tablet, Smartphone or device.  This article emphasizes that garnering the most value and usability from technology will continue to be a smart, necessary investment that impacts customer experience.

Let TecEd know if you have a initiative you’d like to support with “voice of the customer” research – we’ll design a study that provides what you need!  Contact Us.