The key is “real time”. You must continuously gather the information and instantly aggregate it into reports that are both strategic and actionable. You should be able to monitor your customers continuously and instantly watch how they are reacting to business decisions being made.

For other capabilities associated with a Voice of the Customer Platform see: http://www.neurametrics.com/products/generalapplications.html

The Voice of the Customer program you utilize needs to be able to roll the information gathered from customers into true business intelligence capable of providing on-line real time insight into your organization while instantly and automatically prioritizing areas for improvement.

To actually try a Voice of the Customer survey and see your results go to http://www.neurametrics.com/customersatisfaction.html

The closer you are to your customers, the more likely they are to turn to you when they need the products or services you offer. They need to know you are someone who cares about their needs and they need to know that you value what they think. Most of all they need to see you as someone they have a relationship with and… Drip Intelligence fosters that relationship.

The Drip Intelligence methodology is not new. It has been used by NeuraMetrics for several years integral to Business Process Improvement Programs in processes (needing to be monitored) where there is a collection of activities designed to produce a specific output. It has been used in areas such as Benchmarking, Compliance, and Supply Chain Risk.

There is a new idiom that is being integrated into this landscape and it can make all the difference in terms of how quickly you can react to changes in your customer’s behaviors. The term is Drip Intelligence and it was discussed in "Experiencing the Economic Rollercoaster?" an article by Eric Groves.

There are just a few rules to follow when you decide to survey your customers. It has been determined that for the best results the survey respondents should be:

Independent – people that have no ties to your organization and either are interested in helping you stay in business because they like your company or have a problem with your company and for various reasons would like to make you aware of that problem.

Diverse – people of both genders, all age groups, all/any ethnic groups, any religious persuasion, any sexual orientation etc.

Decentralized – people that are not restricted by location, job function, status, industry, etc.

…and you should have an effective method for aggregating the information.

You can survive (even thrive in) a recession if you can react quickly to changes in customer needs, perceptions, and behaviors regarding your facilities, products, and services. These are the key components driving Customer Loyalty, Growth and Repeat Business and being able to react quickly will give you a huge advantage to stay viable and stand out against the competition. In any economy, it's very important to get ongoing feedback from your customers.

One of the areas in all of the verticals that NeuraMetrics serves is Customer Satisfaction. This is more appropriately called Voice of the Customer because the process only creates customer satisfaction after the company listens to the Voice of the Customer. The question is: how do we REALLY listen to our customers and what do we do with the information? We at NeuraMetrics feel there are variations in not only how the information is collected but also how it is used. The information must be really relevant to the executives in the organization and for best results it must be collected and displayed/analyzed in real time.