Hypatia Research Group was the FIRST industry analyst and market research firm to author primary research and vendor evaluations for Voice of the Customer technology in 2010. Voice of the Customer (VOC) and Customer Experience Management (CEM) business processes along with enabling software technologies— solutions formerly known as Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM)—have recently converged. Moreover, more than 20 vendors are racing to add Social Media Intelligence (SMI) capabilities to these solutions so that the ability to perform unified quantitative and qualitative customer analysis[1] (holistic customer intelligence) becomes a part of this VOC equation. This blending of the quantitative with the qualitative customer feedback is nascent still at most B2B industries such as manufacturing, process industries, energy & utilities, and professional services firms. In B2C sectors inclusive of retail, financial services, banking, consumer goods and telecommunications, maturity levels in operationalization of VOC processes are more advanced. However, less than 8% of all companies surveyed have attained a visionary level of maturity as defined through our primary research. --Leslie Ament

1. Operationalizing VOC:
Maturity Models & Best Practices
Leslie Ament, SVP Research,
Client Advisory, & Principal
Analyst
©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

2. Operationalizing VOC
 Customer Intelligence Research & Advisory Services
 Research Overview & Methodology
 Corporate Importance
 Who’s Using?
 Performance Benchmarks, Metrics & the Right Stuff
 Best Practices: 3 Case Studies
 LiveNation
 Multi-Billion Dollar Retailer
 Insurance Provider
 Summary
 About Hypatia & Contact Info
©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

3. Hypatia Research: Actionable
Insight That Drives Results!
©2008 Hypatia Research & Consulting
Primary
Quantitative
Surveys
Primary
Qualitative
Interviews
with B2C /
B2B end-
users
Market
Intelligence &
Analysis
Strategy
Workshops
Custom
Research
Competitive
Intelligence
• Research
Reports
• Seminar/
Webinar
• Case Studies
• Vendor
Selection
• KPI’s & Best
Practices
• Industry
Snapshots

4. Enabling Technologies, Processes
& Services End-Users Deploy:
•Text Analytics
•Data Mining
•Content Mining
•Enterprise
Feedback Mgmt.
•Consumer
Generated Media
•Market Insight
•CRM
•Marketing
Automation
•Web Analytics
•Data Integration
•Data Quality
•Identity
Management
Customer
Data
Management
Customer
Interaction
Management
Business
Intelligence/
Analytics
Consumer
Insight /
Market
Intelligence
©2008 Hypatia Research & Consulting
©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

5. Research Methodology
MARKET Analysis
 Market Pressures and Challenges
 Actions and Responses
 Knowledge and Capabilities
 Enabling Technologies

6. Respondent Profile
>$10b
15%
$1b to
$9.9b
19%
$501M
to
$999M
13%
$51M to
$499M
21%
<$50M
32%
C-level 22%
EVP /VP
13%
Director /
Manager
31%
Team
Member
24%
Consultant /
Analyst 10%
Respondent’s RoleCompany Size
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

7. Respondent Profile
Geography
Africa 0.4%
Asia / Australia 1.1%
Eastern Europe 0.4%
Middle East 1.9%
North America 93.3%
South America 1.9%
Western Europe 1.1%
6.0%
9.0%
9.7%
10.8%
11.2%
11.9%
13.1%
13.8%
14.6%
Not-for-Profit
High-Tech: (HW & SW)
Manufacturing
Healthcare
Consumer Products
Retail
Professional Services
Financial Services
Other
Not surprisingly, B2C
sectors are more
likely to invest….
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

8. Current VOC Users
15
18
23
40
41
47
60
61
66
67
Web Analytics
Mkt. Research-external
Merchandising
Other
Customer Analytics
Market Research-Internal
Mkt./Prod. Mkt.
Corporate Strategy
BI / IT Services
Customer Service
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Current VOC users are
those most comfortable
using technology to
gather, analyze, distribute
& apply customer insight
as part of their job
function / MBO’s.
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

9. Market Pressures & Challenges
38.90%
41.10%
54.90%
Understand customer
preferences
Increase customer
loyalty
Acquire new customers
Top 3 Corporate Issues
Top 3 Operational Business
Problems
Improve customer experience 48.5%
Increase customer profitability 43.3%
Improve customer retention rates 43%
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

10. Market Pressures & Challenges
38.90%
41.10%
54.90%
Understand customer
preferences
Increase customer
loyalty
Acquire new customers
Top 3 Corporate Issues
Top 3 Operational Business
Problems
Improve customer experience 48.5%
Increase customer profitability 43.3%
Improve customer retention rates 43%
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

11. Actions & Responses:
How Will Company Respond to
Challenges
Internal resources usage 41.9%
External expertise usage 16.7%
Outsource to an agency, consulting
firm or provider of research services 5.6%
Top Three Challenges Faced
when Adopting VOC
Vendor selection 62.35%
Integration with existing systems 43.50%
Establish internal business processes
/ best practices 42.20%
Planned Investment
in VOC
Increase
(10%)
Decrease
(10%)
About the
Same
None
Next 0-6 Months 19.4% 9.0% 42.2% 29.5%
Next 6-18 Months 20.9% 10.8% 39.9% 28.4%
Next 18-36 Months 25.0% 8.6% 39.2% 27.2%
Steady
increase in
VOC usage
planned
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

12. Knowledge & Capabilities:
16%
21.90%
27%
30.40%
Globally across the
organization
Ad-hoc or on a project
basis
Centrally across the
organization by region
Within individual
departments
Sources of Data Collection
20.90%
25.20%
25.60%
Monthly feedback…
With each feedback…
Ad-hoc or as-needed
How Often is Analysis
Distributed to Stakeholders?
Primary Uses of Outside
Expertise
Subject matter [analytics,
research, data modeling]
expertise 28.7%
Cost management 25.6%
Industry expertise 18.5%
Technical expertise 13.8%
Project management 13.4%
Sampling Rules Consistent
Across the Organization ?
Yes 43.3%
No 56.7%
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

13. VOC Importance to
Corporate Performance
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

14. Current Departmental Usage
of VOC technologies
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC

15. Most Valuable Information
Sources: VOC
15
Source:©2011HypatiaResearch,LLC

16. Performance Benchmarks &
Metrics
Performance metrics should vary by business application and purpose—right? Common sense would suggest this; however,
as we might well know from reading Dilbert or viewing “The Office”, this is not always the case

17. Establishment of Operational
Standards
Metrics: Are We There
Yet?
68% 67%
56%
29% 29%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Net Promoter Score Customer Loyalty Customer Satisfaction
Index
Annual Customer
Profitability
% Reduction in
Complaints
Capturing the Right
Stuff?
78.8%
71.3% 71.2%
66.4%
49.7%
21.2%
28.7% 28.8%
33.6%
50.4%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Structured survey:
CustSatisfaction
Emails between customer
& org.
Structured survey:
CustLoyalty
Open-ended customer
text
Blogs: company/products
Important Not Important
17
Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC Source: ©2011 Hypatia Research, LLC
Performance metrics should vary by business application and purpose—right? Common
sense would suggest this; however, as we might well know from reading Dilbert or
viewing “The Office”, this is not always the case

18. Best Practices in Action: VOC

19. Best Practices: Live Nation
 Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE:LYV) is the largest live
entertainment company in the world: connecting 200 million
fans to 100,000 events in over 40 countries. Their business
model includes selling concert videos via Apple and iTunes as
well as sponsorship, ticket sales and service fees generated
from TicketMaster.
 Currently Live nation performs all of their VOC techniques
internally with a team of 15 and is responsible for providing
decision-support to multiple departments.
 Priority one was to create a self-sufficient research & analytics
group that could operate without depending on external
resources or internal IT resources.
19

20. Live Nation: Operationalization
 Live Nation has increased their velocity by 10X. Automation has
enabled unique links to be embedded in outbound email that
authenticates and validates that the person who purchased ticket
actually took the survey.
 All customer transactions are stored in one database (Infor) and
then fed into the survey database to authentic customer
information such as concert genre selected, demographics, etc…
 Now that the team is empowered to perform both data mining
and survey functions in terms of customer knowledge---i.e.
transactional behavior + survey attitudes in one group—a critical
goal has been achieved.
 Global research is able to put the why into VOC insight rather
than continue to disseminate operational BI reports. 20

21. Live Nation: Results
 Now that the team is able to capture, manage, and analyze VOC by
comparing results from different channels [phone versus, retail,
versus online] and points of view—clear cause and effect in regards
to issues is apparent.
 Sponsorships—helping them illustrate customer segments & validate value of
sponsorship
 Marketing—correlating the effect cannibalization rates have on incremental sales
 Retail sales—comparison of gift tickets versus online purchasers
 Venue/Artist—results have lead Live Nation to make changes based on VOC
input
 Products Offered—customer input resulted in changes:
 Consumers want all in one pricing
 Desire paperless tix rather than having brokers snatch up good seats
 Consumers found retail outlets such as Wal-mart convenient
 Brand favorability 80% due to consumer friendly pricing
 Only a certain percentage purchased via retail outlets in specific regions…and some will never
purchase online
 Return policy & exchange policy implemented within 3 days of purchase for full refund

22. Multi-Billion $ Global Retailer
 Global Retailer of 40,000+ Products
 Founded in the United States, and operating in the
UK, Japan and Germancy, this $9b global online
retailer employs over 22,000. Merchandise is sold
worldwide via the Internet, television, and the
telephone and includes product categories such as
apparel/accessories, jewelry, perishable goods
(flowers, gourmet foods, fruits, and desserts), party
supplies, outdoor and backcountry sports gear and
sports nutrition.

23. Challenges: Global Retailer
 Operating in a truly multi-channel environment where
customer input ranged from ranging from call center, ratings
and reviews on website, and online community forum, the
high volume and velocity of customer feedback overwhelmed
the three person VOC team tasked with monitoring
customer feedback.
 Due to extremely heavy workloads—a result of two open
team member requisitions--the selection process took two
years. With corporate sponsorship provided by the CIO, the
shortlist of finalists included Attensity and Clarabridge.

24. Vendor Selection: Global
Retailer
 Initially the retailer was concerned about vendors meeting the
volume of data required so a pilot was initiated.
 While Attensity was very favorably reviewed, Clarabridge was
selected ultimately because the company had just purchased
and implemented Microstrategies as their business intelligence
platform.
 Executives drove this decision for several reasons:
 Clarabridge has more retail customers and sector experience,
 Microstrategies has an integration partnership with Clarabridge
so reports interface easily with Microstrategy reporting,
 Executives wanted dashboards for returns as well as providing
power users across the enterprise with reports that they can
share with supply chain partners who do not have direct access.

25. Operational Approach: Global
Retailer
 Previously anecdotal feedback rather than actual data and facts were used
for decision-making in regards to voice of the customer. Now the team is
mining for insight through a vast number of products and numerous sales
channels—and Clarabridge is utilized everyday to respond to questions
such as:
 Why didn’t we meet sales goals?
 Whats going on in the beauty area overall—and we need it before the bi-
weekly meeting!
 What didn’t work on the fashion day campaign?
 What are we doing well or poorly in each product categories as analyzed
by sentiment and should we apply the positive to additional brand
segments?
 How should we address the volume of negative feedback on new return
labels? What actions should we take given customers’ feedback?

26. Results: Global Retailer
 In a global, multi-channel retail environment, the sheer amount of customer input
is daunting and impossible without an enabling technology. In addition to providing
decision-support, brand perception assessments and product trending analysis on a
regular and ad-hoc basis to stakeholders, results include:
 Identification of success strategies that lead to a significant increase in proucts
sales—and the ability to duplicate this success in other product categories
 Proactive reduction in product returns due to poor quality—puts context around
sales and return metrics so that products with more than a 1% rate of return due
to damage or defect is discontinued.
 Productivity increase—with over 10,000 comments per day, a retailer would need
20+ VOC analysts to atttempt this volume manually. Only 3-5 are now utilized.
 Lowered spoilege expenses in food products—learned that more than 1% of food
arrived was delivered to customers either soft or spoiled. Tracked the problem
to the amount of dry ice utilized and resolved the isssue.

27. Best Practices: Insurance
 Founded in early 1900’s, this is a not-for-profit member services
organization has more than 700,000 members in North America. They are
affiliated several other not-for-profit insurance organizations in other
countries as well.
 Because this insurance association believes that their competitive strength
is how customers are treated, the organization “walks the walk” and
exemplifies a mature stage of operationalizing VOC programs across an
enterprise. For example, all staff members are required to undergo a
three day work shop designed to ensure customers have high quality
interactions and conversations that truly represents the association’s
brand. Additionally, this insurance provider has both individual and team
incentives in place to ensure its employees are appropriately motivated.

28. Insurance: Results
 Dedicated to establishing a customer centric culture of continuous
improvements, this association fully expects their VOC programs to
evolve over the next 3-10 years. In the short term, having taken the time
to plan out as much of the program in advance of vendor selection as
possible has netted them significant return on investment.
 This organization realized huge cost savings across the board from
multiple areas inclusive of:
 2% improvement in productivity gains in issue resolution
 1% decrease in tens of millions of insurance claims
 1% increase in customer retention scores (estimated at ~$7M in policy
renewals)
 3% performance improvement in sales team scores (Member satisfaction
went from 87% to 90%)

29. Summary: Early Stage
 VOC not yet widely deployed
 Data gathered departmentally (in silos)
 Non-standardized operational reporting: annual to ad-
hoc
 Emerging expertise / usage across functions
 Inconsistent sampling practices
 Inconsistent practices across departments
 Incomplete Integration: legacy systems & processes
 Establishment of performance metrics &
standardized benchmarks lacking

30. Summary: Rules of Road
 End-User Investments
 Create a measurable goal and operational plan for
execution
 Organize: Hire expertise & train employees
 Establish standard performance metrics,
benchmarks & processes to help improve
consistency of VOC practices
 Integration of survey analysis {data + unstructured
text} with enterprise data
 Improve ability to collect, analyze & apply feedback
more frequently

31. Summary: Rules of Road
 Create a Customer Intelligence COE
 Market Researchers
 Consumer Insight Analysts
 LOB: Marketers, Merchandising, Service, R&D
 IT
 Potential End-User Benefits
 Acquire & retain profitable customers: Improve
profitability per customer
 Reduce costs: product quality defects / service &
support
 Establish service line extensions and/or product
innovations
 Manage brand reputation

32. Summary: Vendor Evaluation
 Critical Requirements
 Multi-channel data capture; online, phone/IVR,
survey, transaction, call center, mobile etc…
 Integrate survey analysis with enterprise data;
CRM, Transactional Systems, & Contextual Stuff
 BI, Text Analytics, Advanced Analytics & Data
modeling
 Create a competitive advantage: Collect & apply CI
more frequently within organization

33. Summary: Benefits
 Increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, NPS
 Acquire & retain profitable customers: Improve
profitability per customer
 Reduce costs: product quality defects / service & support
 Establish service line extensions and/or product
innovations
 Manage brand reputation via proactive monitoring
 Defend competitive position & market share via VOC
insight

34. 34
Q & A
Leslie Ament, SVP Research &
Principal Analyst
Hypatia Research Group
M: 617-230-0067
O: 781-862-5106
lar@hypatiaresearch.com
www.HypatiaResearch.com
http://Store.HypatiaResearch.com
Twitter: Hypatia_LeslieA
Twitter: HypatiaResearch
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