Consider using focus groups to find out more about your customers and what they think of your products and services. Most people know the focus group technique, where customers are brought together and asked their opinion by a professional facilitator. In initial business-to-business satisfaction focus groups, we usually ask key account contacts a number of pointed questions about their expectations and how well the supplier is meeting them. Focus groups may take more time and effort than surveys, but the interaction with the group may provide clearer feedback.
Many companies use focus groups to look at new products, or focus on identifying solutions to problems. Software publisher Intuit used focus groups to assemble people who hadn’t purchased its software but were considered potential customers. It asked them why they weren’t customers, what problems they had in related areas, how software could help them.
In some cases, focus group discussions with customers are videotaped and used for several related purposes. With the tapes, there is an edited record of customer responses whose uses are limited only by the firm’s creativity. Such tapes can be used to:
1. Tighten and align the questions on satisfaction surveys.
2. Bring the “voice of the customer” into internal training programs.
3. Help determine which internal delivery systems are out of alignment with customer expectations.
4. Develop quicker employee buy-in for any process or system improvement.
Video focus groups are among the most powerful ways to create a sense of urgency about service quality. Employees tend to listen to customers more than they listen to their own supervisors. At the same time, video focus groups are a powerful way to capture targeted customer expectations systematically. There’s no better way to leverage a research investment.