Chapter 7: Listen to the Voices, But Not the Ones in Your Head

In the 1990s, people in product development used a feedback research loop by which they tested products through interviewing potential users. They called it usability testing and its effectiveness was so complete, so valid, and also so far-reaching that ad agencies and marketing consultants, stole it, claimed they invented it, and re-titled it as Voice-of-Customer research.

Why? Because that’s what ad agencies do. And quadrupled the price. Because that’s what ad agencies do, too.

Over the years, maybe the last 40 or more years for me, I’ve been a practitioner of Voice-of-Customer research for more than 100 different companies having conducted over 4,000 individual interviews. And the only research attribute I’ve learned is that all the methodologies, and all the ethnological approaches, as good as they might be, pale in comparison to expertly conducted VOC; where the most reliable outcomes are byproducts of talking to people one-on-one.

Sure as hell, we know that there are too many talkers in this world and not enough listeners. And that’s what’s great about VOC. You can’t practice it if you’re not a terrific listener. Which makes it an art-form. And a lost one at that.

Want to know how to conduct VOC? Want to know how to listen to the voices of others, and not your own? It’s Chapter 7 (seventh heaven) if you’re looking for the first-ever, step-by-step process of how to conduct VOC the correct way.