Voice of the Customer Should Be Used to Collect Competitive Intelligence

Yesterday, Primary Intelligence hosted a webinar for a great group of people. The purpose of this presentation was to show how current Voice of the Customer (VOC) initiatives can be modified to provide Competitive Intelligence to different departments.

The first step is to review your current touch points with customers at different stages of the relationship. The second is to figure out how to add competitive intelligence questions into those processes.

Of course, if you don’t have those processes in place already, you might consider the cost/benefit of implementing a broader range of VOC “listening programs” (surveys).

You can see below a chart that shows many possible interaction points with your clients. Every single one of these touch points is a potential source of competitive intelligence.

This is a chance to think strategically about your VOC program in relation to CI. You should be asking yourself “During each phase of the relationship, what does my client think or know about my competitors and marketplace?”

And, you would be very surprised by how much your clients actually do know about your competitors. They may have purchased from you, but they have evaluated many other vendors over time.

Over the next few days, we’ll review specific ways to integrate CI questions into different steps.

I would also like to thank everyone that attended the webinar. We had a very interactive group and the questions provided a very rich environment for knowledge exchange.

As a follow-up, we’re hosting a panel discussion on Tuesday, April 24 at 2PM ET (11AM PT). If you are interested in participating in an open discussion, let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801.838.9600 x5050)

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