There’s some debate about whether this actually occurred, but it clearly illustrates the power of a good mobilising goal in bringing people together with a palpable and shared sense of purpose.
Unless you have a goal that clearly articulates the promises that people across the business will make to each other and how that will change the current assessments held by customers e.g. “you can never get a straight answer”, “I get told that ‘we are looking into that’, “they are a bit of a black-hole” etc. then you struggle to get people to commit to changing their own contributions. In turn, customers are unlikely to see any meaningful change.
Many Voice of the Customer projects begin with goals such as “we want to be the best…” or “our goal is to reduce customer churn”. The trouble is, nobody is going to get excited and rally around goals like these.
Your goal needs to be something that if your employees were asked in the pub “what do you do?” can be answered by something a bit more compelling and authentic than “I’m the sales manager”. Not understanding how you are benefiting the greater good of the business is disempowering and inefficient, and doesn’t lead to commitment.
When considering what “Voice of the customer” really means for your organisation, it’s useful to understand that customer feedback scores (and verbatim comments) are actually an assessment (or, if you prefer, a judgement) of the relationship not between company and customer, but of the relationships across the business (including your suppliers).