Heard
Bring your customer's voice at the centre of every business decision
Every leader says the customer comes first. Very few businesses can show you where the customer's voice actually enters a decision.
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In development
Interviews with the people who run customer voice programmes inside organisations, distilled into a model leaders can install using the five stages.
The problem
In most organisations the customer's voice arrives late, filtered through a survey score or a sales anecdote, long after the roadmap is set.
The people closest to decisions sit furthest from the customer. That is the problem in retail, health, education and B2B alike.
Where did your customer sit in your last big decision?
Think of the last major decision your leadership team made. A new product. A pricing change. A restructure. The roadmap for the year.
Now ask one question. At what moment did the customer's voice enter the room?
If you are honest, it did not enter at the start. It arrived late, filtered through a survey score or a sales anecdote someone remembered, long after the roadmap was set. By then the real decision had been made, and the customer was being asked to approve it.
Every leader says the customer comes first. Very few businesses can show you where the customer's voice actually enters a decision.
What a late customer voice is costing you
When the voice arrives late, three things happen. You will recognise all of them.
- You debate opinions. The loudest or most senior person in the room wins, and the evidence is used to decorate the decision afterwards.
- You learn what went wrong after launch, when it is expensive to fix and everyone is looking at you.
- Your best customer insight lives in five places, reported, filed and forgotten, with nobody who owns it.
None of this is a failure of effort. You already collect feedback. It is a failure of plumbing. Nothing carries what customers say to the people deciding, on the day they decide.
The answer is not more feedback. It is a route.
Heard is a practical guide for leaders who want the voice of the customer built into how the business runs. Not a survey tool. Not a one-off research project. A listening programme that runs every week, and a way to turn what customers tell you into priorities your leadership team will back.
It works in retail, health, education and B2B, because the problem looks the same everywhere: the people closest to decisions sit furthest from the customer.
RetailHealthEducationB2B
Design Compass
The Design Compass keeps the voice of the customer turning.
Voice of the customer means knowing what your customers expect, prefer and experience well enough to guide every product, marketing and service decision. A strong programme gathers feedback across many touchpoints, runs as a structured programme, is shared across teams and has one named owner. Heard uses the Design Compass to install exactly that, in five stages.
Read the HBS Online overview of voice of the customer- Plan
Set the listening goals, and who decides on what customers say.
- Research
Map your existing feedback sources, and where insight stops travelling.
- Design
Design the listening posts, the feedback flows and the reporting rhythm.
- Test
Pilot the programme, and check that insight reaches real decisions.
- Embed
Run it, close the loop with customers, and adjust as their needs change.
Every stage ends with a recorded call: go on, change course, or stop. Embed sets the next Plan, and an inner loop of Decide, Learn and Improve keeps the whole wheel turning.
What you'll be able to do
Take this into your next leadership meeting:
How to turn what customers tell you into priorities your leadership team will back
How to build the customer's voice into how the business runs, and where it should enter a decision
And inside Heard you will also find
- Why a survey score and a sales anecdote are poor substitutes for the customer's own words, and what to put in front of your leadership team instead.
- How to name an owner for the customer voice, and give it a rhythm for acting on it.
- How to close the loop with customers, so they see what changed because they spoke up and keep answering.
- How to run the five stages, Plan, Research, Design, Test and Embed, across your whole organisation, so the listening does not stop when the enthusiasm does.
Who it's for
Built for leaders who carry the customer into the room.
Leaders of larger organisations
You are ready to make the customer's voice part of how decisions get made.
You lead product, digital or customer experience
The decisions that shape the customer experience cross your desk.
You answer to a board, advisors or investors
The experience is now limiting growth, retention or the confidence of the people you report to.
Your feedback lives in five places
Surveys, reviews, support tickets, sales notes and session recordings. Reported, filed and forgotten, with nobody who owns it.
Retail, health, education and B2B
The problem looks the same everywhere: the people closest to decisions sit furthest from the customer.
RetailHealthEducationB2B
Not a fit if you want a survey tool
Or a research project to hand to someone else. Heard is about changing how decisions get made, and that starts with you.
Proof
$30m+
in measured uplift
Myer
Three flagship initiatives, each tested with customers.
18
acquired companies, one experience
Telstra Health
$550k delivered against a $1.6m budget.
About the author
Anton Stout
Anton Stout is a product experience advisor with sixteen years leading customer experience work for retailers and health platforms, including Myer and Telstra Health. He writes on research and design for UXmatters and runs UXDesigned.com.
More about AntonThe guarantee
The First Step Guarantee
Run the first step with your own leadership team. If it doesn't show you something about where the customer's voice enters your decisions that you didn't know, email us within thirty days and we'll refund every cent. Keep the book.
Where Heard leads
Heard is the first step on a path. Take only the step you need.
01
Heard, the book
You are here
02
Voice of the customer program, the workshop and training, recorded
$99 per person
03
The bundle: the book, the workshop recording and the templates
$199
04
Advisory and fractional engagement, for key clients
Premium
Advisory is limited to four or five organisations at a time, so each one gets real focus. The offer document answers every question about what is included and what it costs.
Questions, answered
Fair questions.
Leaders of larger organisations ready to make the customer's voice part of how decisions get made.
Anyone who wants a survey tool, or a research project to hand to someone else. Heard is about changing how decisions get made, and that starts with you.
It works in retail, health, education and B2B, because the problem looks the same everywhere: the people closest to decisions sit furthest from the customer.
The book is the first step. If you want to go further, there is a recorded workshop at $99 per person, a bundle with the templates at $199, and advisory for key clients.
That is advisory. Our team installs the listening programme through a guaranteed sprint or the Voice of the Customer Program. Read the offer document, then apply.
Heard is coming soon. Press Buy now, choose your options and leave your name and email, and we will tell you the day it is ready, with the launch price.
P.S. Every week the customer's voice arrives late is a week of decisions made without it. Be first to know when Heard is ready, and get the launch price.
