Listening and taking action.

In a perfect world we listen to what our customers need/want and then respond accordingly.  Unfortunately, the world isn't perfect.  Below are a couple paragraphs from an article by Jessica Tsai about a recent study performed by Boston Consulting Group:

"The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released its first Customer Insight Benchmarking report recently -- a study that surveyed more than 800 executives involved in either line management or consumer insight roles. Participants were from 40 global companies with at least $1.5 billion in sales, with many, the report notes, exceeding $10 billion. However, budgets are rarely the most pressing issue when it comes to raising the customer voice in the business conversation. In fact, BCG found that oftentimes, the companies that the best — performing companies actually spent less on market research studies per full-time employee (FTE). According to Mary Egan, partner and managing director in the firm's New York office, companies spending a lot per FTE were "swimming in data" and, therefore, more inclined to get stuck on tactical research, instead of focusing on strategic imperatives.

As a consulting firm, BCG was noticing a disconcerting trend among its clients. "We were observing a real gap between the aspirations of the leadership team — what they were saying in mission statements about being customer centric — ...and the actual ways of working in most companies," Egan says. Among the most pressing reasons for this, which became the impetus for this report The Consumer's Voice: Can Your Company Hear It?, was the fact that customer insight teams were actually feeling "sidelined," their work largely un- or undervalued."

Read the entire article here.

-Brianna