Michael McClellan, Plexus Marketing Group

These challenging economic times have most businesses reexamining their demand generation and their customer growth and retention strategies - and looking for ways to attract new customers and keep existing ones. One of the most cost-effective approaches that businesses of all types and sizes should consider is to expand business with existing customers, which builds on the business relationships and goodwill that you have already established with these firms. And, the "Voice of the Customer" survey is one of the most important tools in prospecting for growth - and "gold" - among your current customers.

In most cases, business generated from existing (or even fallen away) customers is faster to generate and much more profitable than that obtained from brand new customers. There are two major strategies (plus one other related one) that you should consider with regard to expanding business with current customers: (a) increasing your firm's "share of wallet" or its market share within targeted accounts; (b) building and launching new product or service offerings with the help of your best customers; and (c ) the related strategy of improving customer retention and reactivating fallen-away customers (which may also involve fixing key product/service or process issues related to your current offerings).

In all three of these strategies, a targeted "Voice of the Customer" (or VOC) study will help you launch (or even jump start) your marketing and sales tactics related to the particular strategic approach. The VOC study does this in several ways: (a) it helps your company take a fresh look at how decision makers and influencers at key customer accounts see both your company and its products/services, as well as the business environment and your particular targeted market segment; (b) it provides your firm with an opportunity to "re-launch" in a new or different direction with these accounts, as you now have some new information that prompts customers to take another look at your offerings - only now with a new point of view that will hopefully provide your firm with renewed growth opportunities; and (c) it generates important diagnostic information that will assist your firm in developing new product/service offerings or improving existing ones.

How specifically does this type of VOC study work? Let me illustrate with a couple of examples. The first example involves a payroll service firm that was trying to improve their customer retention rates and reactivate fallen-away customers. They were particularly keen on identifying promotional program opportunities specifically aimed at customer retention, and although they already had an on-going customer satisfaction measurement program, they liked the idea of having an outside market research firm help them get a fresh perspective from some of their most valued accounts.

After conducting a planning session for the study, we developed a survey instrument that focused on three key areas: (a) the customers' experiences and opinions related to the service they had received during the past year; (b) reactions to 6 promotional concepts that were designed to add value to the customer experience with their payroll service provider (plus the opportunity to suggest additional value-added concepts); and (c ) preferences related to future communications and quality tracking from this company. The survey instrument also included a mixture of open-ended questions (designed to elicit in-depth comments about the customers' individual experiences and preferences) and closed-ended ones (which we used to quantify certain types of responses).

We conducted a total of 60 in-depth interviews - half with current customers and half with fallen-away ones - which were divided among targeted geographic target areas. Customers were contacted and interviewed, with the detailed responses being written up for each account interviewed. The responses were then analyzed to identify key trends and findings, and we developed an in-depth consultative report that identified key opportunity and threat areas, as well as specific recommendations related to both improving customer retention and reactivating fallen-away accounts. As a result of this report, the firm was able to enhance several of its products and processes, and to not only improve retention rates but also grow into a new market segment with larger payroll accounts.

The second example illustrates how VOC surveys can be used with large, strategic level accounts. In this case, rather than using in-depth telephone interviews, we conducted customer roundtable sessions (which were actually held at the client's headquarters location in conjunction with several individual sales meetings held with each of the customers).

Our client was a major industrial and technology company that used their wide array of manufacturing facilities to develop and pilot an outsourced energy use monitoring service that they wanted to offer to their clients in an e-commerce model. Although the concept was in pilot stage within their company, they wanted to expand its use among its current customer base (i.e. current customers using other products and services from this client company).

In this situation, we recommended a customer roundtable approach that encouraged customers to share inputs on a new energy management concept that had a particularly good fit in the manufacturing plant and data center market segments.

In many ways, the 2 hour sessions were structured similar to traditional focus groups, although we gave the sessions a unique twist by involving our client in the concept presentation -- and, by letting the customers know that the purpose of the roundtables was to innovate and develop new service offerings that addressed specific unmet needs that the customers had.

I served as the third party moderator, and was able to ask a series of questions about the participants' industrial energy use needs and what types of initiatives they were undertaking to improve energy use efficiency. I was able to uncover a number of previously unexpressed needs and wants - precisely because I was unfamiliar with the customers' histories with the client company and could ask the participants to verbalize their individual firms' needs, strategic directions, and planned initiatives. I then invited my client's business development team leader to introduce the concept, after which I followed up again with a wide range of questions aimed at deeply exploring how each participant might use the concept in their situations - and what needed to be adjusted in the concept before they would use it on a wider basis.

Not only were the roundtables a hit among the clients, but my client also generated 4 new pilot programs that day prior to the participants leaving for the airport. (By the way, I ran into several of the participants at the airport later that day, and all of those that I talked with said that this was one of the best innovation sessions they had ever participated in.)

In summary, generating new business from existing customers works. And, "Voice of the Customer" studies (including customer roundtables) are highly effective tactical tools for making these strategies work. So, if you have gone through your GrowthANSWERS' "Growth Gap Assessment" and have identified a Loyalty Gap, you now have a new tool that will help you prospect for gold among your current customers.

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