New Temkin Group Research Discusses The Evolution Of Customer Feedback Programs

Online, September 16, 2010 (Newswire.com) - In a new research report called "The Evolution Of Voice Of The Customer Programs," Temkin Group identifies gaps the evolutionary path for voice of the customer (VoC) programs. These VoC efforts concentrate on soliciting, analyzing, and taking action on feedback from customers. The research defines four levels of maturity for these programs: Collectors, Analyzers, Collaborators, and Transformers.

"Voice of the customer programs are often an integral component of improving customer experience, but most companies are still figuring out how to truly respond to customer feedback" stated Bruce Temkin, Customer Experience Transformist and Managing Partner of Temkin Group.

The research identified that companies with more evolved VoC programs tend to outgrow existing processes for managing customer feedback. As companies expand their VoC programs, they often need to provide timely information to 100s or 1,000s of different people across their organization; a requirement that can't be met by existing market research tools and methodologies.

A new category of vendors that Temkin Group calls Customer Insight And Action (CIA) Platforms have emerged which automate a lot of the effort associated with large-scale VoC programs. In the report, Temkin Group provides an overview of 11 of these vendors: Allegiance, Confirmit, Empathica, MarketTools, Medallia, Mindshare Technologies, Ransys Feedback Technologies, ResponseTek, RightNow, Satmetrix, and Vovici.

According to Temkin: "Teams that run VoC programs need CIA Platforms so they can focus less on the mechanics of collecting and reporting feedback and spend more of their time helping their companies take action based on meaningful insights."

This report can be accessed from the Temkin Group website at http://www.temkingroup.com or from the blog, Customer Experience Matters, at http://experiencematters.wordpress.com.

For more information about Temkin Group, visit http://www.temkingroup.com.