Voice of the Customer

Whispered voices: Understanding populations better than they understand themselves

Everyone knows that capturing the Voice of the Customer is a vital part of any organisation, whether it be public or private, profit or non-profit, product or service related. Unfortunately, what every organisation knows is that the customer is very often completely unable to tell us what they want next. Sure they will know to ask for smaller, faster and cheaper, but, to quote Henry Ford, what they are asking for is a better horse and not a car.

Paradoxically, of course, as soon as the customer sees the breakthrough innovation – the cell-phone, digital camera, a piece of Banksy graffiti, Wii, eBay, the iPod – they instinctively know that that is what they want. So, they don’t know what to ask for beforehand, but as soon as they see it (or pretty soon after), they know that they want it.

What can organisations do in this situation?

It’s not all balls, (crystal that is).

This workshop is about exploring some of the answers to that question. Answering the question involves predicting the future. Predicting the future, we all know, is traditionally a tough if not impossible task. Organisations that are better able to predict the future needs of their customers – in the next two, five, ten, twenty… fifty years –are the ones most likely to survive and thrive into the future.

Based on our three million data-point, 12 year programme of research, blackswan is in a position to reveal some of the underlying DNA of innovation and change. More importantly, we understand what organisations need to do to make a substantial impact on their success hit rate.

This workshop will explore beyond-leading-edge strategies for understanding things that haven’t happened yet. This does not mean gazing into crystal balls. It means bringing together a bottom-up scientific understanding of the dynamics of societies and the people within them. It is about understanding the ‘inevitable surprises’ of demographic patterns; it is about uncovering repeatable generational cycles; about listening to the Voices telling us what motivates and de-motivates people to spend their hard-earned money at the various different stages of their lives (and for that matter also what motivates people to come and work for us); it is about listening to the unspoken Voices of the products and services that they are going to spend that money on.

Learning Sector: Innovation skills and practice Suitability: Technical and domain specialists, Senior managers and leaders