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HOW TO CONDUCT GOOD CUSTOMER VISITS
Copyright Management Roundtable, Inc. and Knowledge Roundtable Group, 1996-2006
used under license to Pure Insight, Ltd.
How to Conduct Good Customer Visits
HOW TO CONDUCT GOOD CUSTOMER VISITS
When Bose Corporation's engineers were preparing to work on their home theater
concept, they sought expert advice from Santa Clara University marketing professor
Edward McQuarrie, author of Customer Visits: Building a Better Market Focus.
According to McQuarrie, if you want to be a market leader today, you'd better make
regular, carefully structured customer visits standard practice. But be careful not to
expect a customer visit program to give you hard data. It's not designed for that. What
it does do is give you access to a rich lode of vivid and credible insights into your
customer's business situation that can clarify your product definition process. Here are
some of his best practices for a good customer visit program:
Preparing for the visit
1.
Send an advance letter of confirmation – with an agenda – so your customer knows why
you're coming and can prepare.
2.
Send small cross-functional teams. Two is enough – provided critical perspectives are
represented. If design is a key issue, for example, be sure to send a design engineer.
Insist that people commit to at least four visits – nothing is worse, says McQuarrie, than
a senior person who makes a token visit then decides he or she is an expert.
3.
Select customers according to a plan and visit at least a dozen. For most purposes, 30 is
the maximum. You might want to push that to 45 if you're including overseas visits. And
if a large part of your business is overseas, it's a mistake not to do overseas visits.
4.
Don't keep going back to the same small group of favorite customers. You'll end up with
terrific loyalty in a shrinking market. Talk to people who've left you. Talk to your
competition's customers.
5.
Interview people at each site who represent each stage of the purchasing decision.
6.
Get support from local account management. Neglect to do it, and you might end up
getting shunted to disgruntled customers, just to send you a message.
Conducting the Visit
7.
Use a two-to-three page discussion guide in outline form. Three big no-nos: showing up
and talking about whatever comes up, pulling out a questionnaire that you've worked
out in advance, and starting with a presentation and then going with the flow.
8.
Assign roles to team members. Let one person serve as moderator, another as listener
and note taker.
2
How to Conduct Good Customer Visits
9.
Use open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions – those that call for yes/no or
multiple-choice answers – are the mark of a rank amateur. You are after information
that will surprise you – and them.
10. Don't ask customers to give solutions – get them to identify problems. Stifle your desire
to talk about your product. Go for what interests them: their tasks, their business
situation, their goals and plans. This is where you get the clues you need.
11. Don't talk too much and don't show off your expertise. Basic rule of thumb: let the
customer do 75% of the talking.
12. Probe deeper. McQuarrie says the number one mistake of beginners is the failure to ask
follow up questions. Often it's on the fourth or fifth round that the amazing insights
begin to pop up.
After the visit
13. Debrief immediately. You will be amazed at the cross-pollination that will emerge.
14. Highlight verbatim quotes in reports. Remember, customer visits are not good places to
go for quantitative information. What you are after is a sense of the customer's world.
It's a trip to another planet, says McQuarrie.
15. Every team should draft a report, organized by theme. Nothing more useless than a
blow-by-blow narrative of each visit. Go for an overall report that emphasizes the big
news and underlying themes. Remember to include an explanation of your methods.
16. Archive trip reports on-line with other marketing intelligence. One of the BIG challenges
is building institutional memory so that you can share and leverage what you learn. The
old hard copy report approach is a near-total waste.
KS
3
Getting the Voice of the Customer Right:
Mastering the Art of Customer Visits
NOVEMBER 2-3, 2009 • CHICAGO, IL
An intensive, two-day seminar on how to
design, conduct and analyze customer visits
for new product innovation. Learn proven
techniques to identify customer needs —
including unmet, unspoken needs — and
significantly boost your product success rate.
PRESENTED BY
Led by the foremost authority on
customer visits:
EDWARD F. McQUARRIE,Ph.D.
Professor of Marketing, Santa Clara University,
and author of Customer Visits: Building a Better Market Focus and
The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for Beginners
SESSION IS LIMITED TO 35 PARTICIPANTS AND
IS ESPECIALLY GEARED TO INDUSTRIAL AND
B2B MARKETS WITH MULTIPLE CUSTOMERS.
“A very concise and robust
workshop that provides
useful explanations of the
tools and methods to get
the most value from the
customer visit.”
Paul V.Gaetani,Product Manager,
Kronos
“The workshop enabled me
to perform a more thorough
planning of customer visits
and helped me to adjust my
style. It was two days well
spent—the skills I learned
will help me tremendously.”
Gilbert Hausmann,Sr.Technology
Manager,Tyco Healthcare
R E G I S T E R TO D AY
1.800.338.2223
Learn:
The ABC’s of customer visits – when to do them,
how many are enough, how to assemble the
team, how to ask the right questions and how to
report out the key findings
How to understand what customers can (and
cannot) tell you – stop wasting time on questions
that don’t work and identify questions that will
yield real insight!
Analytical tools to link the Voice of the Customer
to product design and key business decisions
How to gain the organizational buy-in required
for a successful customer visit program
Why a cross-functional team approach for
customer visits is a MUST and how to prepare
these teams for success
w w w. M a n a g e m e n t R o u n d t a b l e. c o m
Getting the Voice of the Customer Right:
Mastering the Art of Customer Visits
NOVEMBER 2-3, 2009 • CHICAGO, IL
O
FTEN CUSTOMERS CAN’T TELL YOU WHAT THEY REALLY
WANT. Yet unspoken needs not only drive buying behavior, they
are a powerful source of new product innovation. Product
developers who know how to tap into these needs are steps ahead
of the competition.
Everything from knowing what to ask, whom to ask, and how to
ask is critical. Just talking with customers, while admirable, can
actually lead you astray if done incorrectly. That’s why Getting the
Voice of the Customer Right: Mastering the Art of Customer Visits will
examine how to conduct customer visits — where you can
personally enter the world of your customers and learn about
their unspoken needs through direct interaction. Programmatic
customer visits for product development have been a business
practice for over twenty years and if executed successfully, can
generate unique customer perspectives that would be difficult to
gain from other VOC activities. Focused on best practices and key
criteria for success, this seminar will provide participants with
practical, step-by-step guidelines to successfully design, conduct
and analyze a program of customer visits — specifically, it will prepare you for how to select the right customers, ask the right kinds
of questions and uncover needs that customers don’t know how
to vocalize. In an economic climate plagued by fickle customers,
fierce competition and product proliferation, you cannot afford
not to master the art of conducting successful customer visits.
ABOUT THE COURSE INSTRUCTOR:
EDWARD F. MCQUARRIE is the Associate Dean for Assessment in
the Leavey School of Business and professor in the Department of
Marketing at Santa Clara University. Considered to be a leading
VOC expert, McQuarrie is also the author of two ground breaking
books on the subject including Customer Visits: Building a Better
Market Focus and The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for
Beginners. His research interests include implementation of a market focus,
qualitative research, and technology strategy, on the one hand, and advertising
research on the other. He has published articles in the Journal of Consumer Research,
Journal of Customer Psychology, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Marketing
Management, Marketing Research, Journal of the Market Research Society, Journal of
Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and others. His depth of knowledge in the
topic area is reflected in support from the Marketing Science Institute, among others.
Professor McQuarrie has twelve years of experience moderating focus groups for
Burke Marketing Research of Cincinnati, has consulted for a variety of technology
firms, and has taught seminars on Effective Customer Visits, Managing Focus Group
Research, Marketing Research Methods, and similar topics for Hewlett-Packard, Sun
Microsystems, Digital Equipment, Apple Computer, Compaq Computer, Informix,
Sybase, Varian Associates, Cadence Design, and others.
Who Should Attend
VPs, Managers and Directors of New
Product Development, Engineering, R&D,
Product Management, Marketing, Technology, Quality, Business Development,
Strategic Planning and any position with
responsibilities related to identifying
and responding to customer needs and
market developments.
The customer visit technique was
developed to meet the special needs of
industrial and B2B markets—best for
firms whose market includes dozens,
hundreds or thousands of potential
customers; not suitable for firms with
only one customer or who serve only a
handful of OEMs. Specific industries that
will gain the most benefit from this
seminar include: computers, electronics,
industrial equipment & supplies, medical
devices, financial services, hospital
supplies, and building infrastructure.
Attend this seminar
and get:
> Best practices for conducting customer
visits aimed at gathering VOC data
> Step-by-step guidelines to design,
implement and analyze the results of a
program of customer visits
> Specific guidance and advice on how to
combine customer visits with other market
research techniques to improve business
decisions
> A reprint of Prof. McQuarrie’s book, Customer
Visits: Building a Better Market Focus
> Recommendations and advice for your
specific customer visit program
Course Outline
Agenda at a Glance
Tuesday, November 2
Wednesday, November 3
Day 1 November 2
Session 1: Where Customer Visits Fit in the
Market Research Toolbox
Session 5: The Art of Constructing Good
Questions
• An overview of the benefits of ad hoc vs.
programmatic customer visits
• Programmatic customer visits are qualitative
market research—learn about their unique
advantages relative to other qualitative tools
like focus groups
• Discover the different kind of information
that can be obtained from customer visits
versus surveys (and why)
• Understand the importance and value of
completing customer visits early in the
decision cycle and their use in paving the way
for subsequent research
• How to create questions that will yield good
insights and gain a better understanding of
unmet customer needs
• Identify strategies that help customers to
vocalize needs that they don’t know they have
• Key steps to determine the economic value
(from your customer’s perspective) of a
proposed product solution
• An overview of the key criteria for identifying
good questions
• E X E R C I S E : Participants will construct sample
questions and will provide/receive feedback
from other participants and the instructor
Session 2: Planning a Program of Customer
Visits
Session 6: Honing Your Interview Skills
7:30 - 8:00
Registration &
Continental Breakfast
8:00 - 10:00
Session 1:
Where Customer Visits
Fit in the Market
Research Toolbox
10:00- 10:30
Refreshment Break
10:30 - 12:00
Session 2:
Planning a Program of
Customer Visits
12:00 - 1:00
Lunch
1:00 - 3:00
Session 3:
Selecting Which
Customers to Visit
3:00 - 3:15
Refreshment Break
3:15 - 5:00
Session 4:
Designing a Discussion
Guide
5:15 - 6:30
Networking Reception
Day 2 November 3
7:30 - 8:00
Continental Breakfast
8:00 - 10:00
Session 5:
The Art of Constructing
Good Questions
10:00 - 10:30
Refreshment Break
10:30 - 12:15
Session 6:
Honing Your Interview
Skills
12:15 - 1:15
Lunch
1:15 - 2:45
Session 7:
Analyzing Customer
Visit Data
2:45 - 3:00
Refreshment Break
3:00 - 4:00
Session 8:
Wrap- up and Action
Items
• Developing a time line for implementing a
program of visits—identify key dates
• Learn how to articulate and define the
decision problem that requires customer visits
• E X E R C I S E : Participants will define their own
research objectives and receive feedback
• How to organize your customer visit team for
success—understanding the power of a crossfunctional approach
• Gaining organizational buy-in and support—
how to work successfully with account
management and other stakeholders
• Preparing for international customer visits—
managing cultural differences
Session 3: Selecting Which Customers to Visit
• Strategies for identifying relevant customer
segments
• Rules of thumb for sizing the sample—how to
calculate the number of visits needed
• How to balance market coverage against the
costs and time of larger samples—when is a
larger sample necessary?
• Selecting the right job functions to interview
within customer organizations—which
functions are critical to involve?
• E X E R C I S E : Participants will develop sample
plans and provide/receive feedback from other
participants and the instructor
Session 4: Designing a Discussion Guide
• How to identify the right topics to discuss and
determine the proper sequencing of those
topics to maximize learning
• Gain a better understanding of the negative
effects of poorly defined topics on the quality
(and quantity) of customer data collected
• E X E R C I S E : Participants will develop a
discussion guide and provide/receive feedback
from other participants and the instructor
• Setting and managing customer expectations
from the outset
• Proven techniques and tips to establish
rapport with interviewees
• How to probe effectively and not bias
responses or lead interviewees
• An overview of common mistakes novice
interviewers can make and how to avoid them
• How to manage difficult circumstances that
can arise in customer visits—examples and
potential solutions are discussed
Session 7: Analyzing Customer Visit Data
• Now that you’ve captured the data, how do
you analyze and interpret it? Practical
procedures to organize, summarize and
communicate the output of customer visits
• A review of available analytical tools—
matrices, process maps and conceptual tables
that can be used to extract the key learnings
from the customer data; understand when to
use which tools and why
• How to use data collected from customer visits
to drive design and new product decisions
Session 8: Wrap-up and Action Items
• Protocol for reporting customer visit
programs—who to inform and in what format
• How to maintain customer visit results—
where to store them and how to make use of
the data later on
• Review: Key challenges to successfully
implement customer visits and how to
overcome them
• How to get started at your organization—
apply what you’ve learned and outline your
implementation steps
• After the visits: When does it make sense to
engage in follow-up research to build on data
from customer visits?
• Summary of key workshop learnings
“This workshop provided excellent guidance
on how and what to ask customers, as well as
how to analyze customer responses.”
“It dealt with real-world, practical, everyday
issues that apply to my work. I enjoyed the
course and found it most worthwhile.”
“I should have attended a year ago, before
our customer visit program. We could have
doubled the value!”
Laura Holte, Product Manager, Cyber Optics Corporation
Robert Green, Sr. Market Development Manager,
Keithley Instruments
Lois Davis, Global Business Manager, Novozymes
R E G I S T E R TO D AY
1.800.338.2223
w w w. M a n a g e m e n t R o u n d t a b l e. c o m
Getting the Voice of the Customer Right:
Mastering the Art of Customer Visits
NOVEMBER 2-3, 2009 • CHICAGO, IL
10Key Benefits:
By attending this seminar, you will learn:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
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When to do customer visits, when to do focus
groups, and when it’s better to engage in some
other kind of market research entirely
What it takes to gain organizational buy-in and
how to do it
How to calculate how many customers, across which
segments, you need to visit in order to collect
actionable data
4
WAYS TO REGISTER:
Call:
1-800-338-2223 or 781-891-8080
(weekdays,9:00am–5:30pm EST)
Fax to:
Internet:
Mail to:
781-398-1889
www.ManagementRoundtable.com
Customer Visits Workshop
c/o Management Roundtable
92 Crescent Street,Waltham,MA 02453
Please accept the following registration(s):
(Please use photocopies for additional people)
NAME
Mr. / Ms.__________________________________________________________________________
TITLE ____________________________________________________________________________________
COMPANY _________________________________________________________________________________
DIVISION/DEPT. ______________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS__________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
The importance of assembling a cross-functional
team to conduct customer visits and how to prepare
these teams to succeed
How to design a discussion guide to maximize the
effectiveness of a series of customer visits – know
what topics to include and how to sequence them
What customers can tell you (and what they can’t) –
learn how to construct questions that uncover real
insights
How to assess the economic value of a proposed
solution in the eyes of the customer
That customer visits can serve dual purposes, both
to gather customer input and build relationships
Interview techniques that will help you identify
needs that customers cannot vocalize – and know
when and how to probe further
Analytical tools for linking the Voice of the Customer
to product design and key business decisions
The Management Roundtable
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WORKSHOP FEE: $1995/person. Fee includes all program materials,luncheons,continental breakfasts,
networking reception and refreshment breaks.NOTE:This workshop is strictly limited to 35 participants;reserve early
to ensure your seat.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE: Two-day workshop format. The workshop will be held November 2-3,2009.
Registration/continental breakfast begins at 7:30 a.m. on day one; session begins at 8:00 a.m. and concludes at
4:00 p.m.on day two.
LOCATION & HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS: Hilton Suites Chicago,198 East Delaware
Place,Chicago,IL 60611. For reservations,please call 312-664-1100. A limited block of rooms is available at a discounted group rate of $179.Please reserve early and be sure to mention that you will be attending “Management
Roundtable’s Mastering the Art of Customer Visits Workshop.”
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CONFERENCE ATTIRE: Business casual.