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The voice of the customer can impact an organization in many ways. But how can it be heard without freeform, one-on-one conversations? While many organizations work hard to support their customers, they miss the opportunity to have curious conversations. They aren’t asking intriguing, important questions to guide the direction of the organization. Why? Because it makes everyone feel vulnerable.
But you see, vulnerability is one of the many characteristics that makes us uniquely human. Organizations (and people) shouldn’t opt for easy communication simply to avoid it. Because when vulnerability enters communication, it allows us to investigate and connect with curiosity. Embracing the deeper, more meaningful conversations that create space for openness and interest leads to better relationships that only genuine dialogue can foster.
Today’s guest is Tonya Bjurstrom. Tonya is an expert in Voice of the Customer in B2B and she’s the founder of the consultancy Dirby. Tonya’s role at Dirby is cultivating curiosity in her clients regarding the assumptions they’ve made about their businesses, customers, and customer experience.
Before founding Dirby, Tonya spent many years in enterprise sales and sales leadership. Today, she shares her thoughts on the importance of elevating your customers’ experience by simply asking them about it. Their feedback can then help build insight for companies to leverage – taking you beyond what you can learn from data alone.
Tonya suggests twenty to thirty-minute freeform conversations with customers to explore key desired insights (what you want to learn from your customers) and to understand how your customers feel about you. She also discusses how customer conversations and qualitative data humanize the quantitative data that all too often form the exclusive driver for business decisions.
Tonya and I also discussed:
• Why the voice of the customer touches every part of your organization
• How KDIs (key desired insights) and KPIs overlap
• Why customers often provide better feedback in conversations
• How to embrace the vulnerability of human conversation
• What it means to cultivate curiosity about your own business
Holding Curious Conversations to Hear the Voice of the Customer
Hear Episode 184 and any/every other conversation of The Customer Experience Podcast in your favorite podcast player …
While you’re there, please give an extra click to rate the show – or even take a minute to leave a review. It’s much appreciated!
We also embed the full conversation and make it searchable right here in these blog posts. The recording with Tonya Bjurstrom is right here …
Video Highlights: Holding Curious Conversations to Hear the Voice of the Customer
Check out the top five video highlights from the discussion with Tonya Bjurstrom…
1. Customer Experience is Not Customer Satisfaction
2. Business Benefits of Hearing the Voice of the Customer
3. Why to Host One-on-One Customer Conversations via a Third Party
4. Structuring the Customer Conversation
5. The Connection Between Curiosity and Vulnerability
Links Related to This Conversation:
Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy:
- Episode 116 with Lauren Culbertson, “Closing Both Loops with Voice of the Customer”
- Episode 156 with Julie Hansen, “An Actor’s Guide to Authentic Videos“
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