Interview with: Reg Price, Co-Founder & Company Director, MirrorWave

1. Interview with: Reg Price, Co-
Founder & Company Director,
MirrorWave
“Many Voice of the Customer (VoC)
programmes have such a low response
rate that they do not provide any real
feedback. This is a huge problem in the
industry today yet nobody is talking
about it. And this reinforces the
perception that marketing is “soft”.
When the response rate is lower than 50
percent, CMOs should wonder if it is
worth doing the survey,” says Reg Price,
Co-Founder & Company Director,
MirrorWave. “Companies may want to
do a good job of listening to customers
but both their mindset and their
processes often are working against
that,” he believes.
MirrorWave is a sponsor company at the
marcus evans CMO Summit 2018,
taking place in Gold Coast, 20 - 22
August.
Why are traditional customer
feedback methods not working?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a
commonly used method, in part
because everyone knows about it and is
using it, but common practise is not
necessarily best practise. A good part of
the problem is that the NPS process is
just plain annoying for participants.
Also, they do not believe they are really
being listened to and unfortunately, in a
lot of cases they are correct - in reality,
there is not much listening going on. A
poor response rate is a clear symptom
of the problem. We know of a govern-
mental organisation that sends out a
million post-interaction NPS question-
naires and is happy to receive 10
percent back. Many surveys have a
10 – 20 percent response rate - an
absolute train crash because 90 percent
cannot be bothered. The truth is that
many research agencies gloss over
response rates and the client does not
want to know.
How could CMOs get into a listening
mindset?
It is easy for CMOs to get a much better
response rate. Basically, they need to
do what good, active listeners do.
In reality many VoC programmes do not
actually have listening as their primary
objective, focusing instead on getting
metrics. Often in NPS, teams get
rewarded based on scores, so their
minds are on chasing scores rather than
listening. That leads to behaviours like
excluding customers who might give a
poor score, when really, they are the
ones you get most value from listening
to. A first conscious decision to be made
at high level is whether this is really
going to be about giving customers a
voice that will be listened to.
What makes customers feel listened
to?
One of the first things we tell clients is
to let people say what they think in their
own words because surveys tend to ask
questions that interest only the
company. That gives them a true voice
and you get to learn what people think
as they see it, unvarnished. Equally,
what they do not say is as useful as
what they do say.
Another golden rule is to reflect back to
people what they have said in the past,
as so much gets lost in translation. If
you follow people over time then
technology exists to reflect back to
them in real time what they have said
previously. You start to show your
participants that it is their journey that
matters, not just a single snapshot in
time. A recent Harvard Business Review
article on the surprising power of
questions shows that follow-up
questions are very powerful for
demonstrating good listening. That
means good follow-up is one of the best
relationship strengthening actions you
can take. In doing these sorts of things,
we are replicating what the very best
active listeners do.
Once customers feel listened to,
what are the business outcomes?
People who feel listened to are more
willing to do business. That is why CMOs
must harden up on response rates and
that is why feedback must be viewed as
a business strategy, not information
collection.
Firstly, it helps retain customers and
everyone knows the economics of
loyalty. The second area is share of
wallet. By understanding people’s
problems you can do more business
with them. The third area is cost to
serve. The clients who are most
dissatisfied chew up most of your
resources. If you get on top of that, you
reduce costs and free up your team for
more proactive tasks. And finally, by
listening really well, you get people
talking about your company and
bringing in new clients.
If properly structured, the business
outcomes from VoC should be known
and your provider should guarantee
their returns. That would be putting
your money where your customers’
mouths are!
People who
feel listened
to are more
willing to do
business
Why and How CMOs should Dramatically
Improve their Customer Survey Response Rate

2. The Marketing Network –
marcus evans Summits group
delivers peer-to-peer information
on strategic matters, professional
t r e n d s a n d b r e a k t h r o u g h
innovations.
Please note that the Summit is a
closed business event and the
number of participants strictly
limited.
About the CMO Summit 2018
The CMO Summit is the premium forum bringing elite buyers and sellers together.
The Summit offers chief marketing executives and agencies and consultants an
intimate environment for a focused discussion of the key new drivers shaping the
marketing agenda. Taking place at the RACV Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast,
Queensland, Australia, 20 - 22 August, the Summit includes presentations on
forecasting the future of brand and digital, effectively understanding and deriving
insights from data according to specific marketing strategies, strengthening
customer relationships and engagement, and stretching the marketing dollar.
www.cmoanzsummit.com
Contact
Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian, Press Manager, marcus evans, Summits Division
Tel: + 357 22 849 313
Email: press@marcusevanscy.com
All rights reserved. The above content may be republished or reproduced. Kindly
inform us by sending an email to press@marcusevanscy.com
About MirrorWave
People hate surveys, but love being listened to! That’s why we founded MirrorWave… to help companies like yours, who are serious
about their relationships and want to profit from doing an outstanding job of listening and responding.
www.mirrorwave.com
About marcus evans Summits
marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss
strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to
individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, case studies, roundtables and one-to-one business meetings.
For more information, please visit: www.marcusevans.com
Upcoming Events
CMO Asia Summit - www.cmoasiasummit.com
Latin CMO Summit - http://latincmo.marcusevans-summits.com
Marketing Leadership Forum - http://marketingleadership.marcusevansforums.com
To view the web version of this interview, please click here:
http://events.marcusevans-events.com/cmo2018-reg-price