There is much debate surrounding the methodologies of VOC. Leading-edge companies have come to realize that VOC methods do not guarantee success. In fact, a recent blog by Andrew McInnes of Forrester Research, mentions a growing number of companies are not feeling the business value of their VOC programs. Forrester conducted a survey that revealed nearly half of the respondents felt their VOC programs were not delivering financial results. Is it time to silence the voice of the customer?

This is no surprise to us at Strategyn. Based on our research we have discovered that today’s VOC methods are fraught with ambiguity and actually cause the failures that companies are trying to avoid.  So why is this? As the blog suggests, and what we firmly believe, is that most companies think about customer needs from the wrong perspective.

By focusing on the “job-to-be-done,” instead of the product or the customer, companies are able to create breakthrough products and services that garner them the financial success they seek. Thinking about innovation from this perspective is what makes our patented innovation process, Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) different. Using ODI, companies are able to discover customer insights that VOC simply cannot. The result is an impressive 86% innovation success rate. Learn more about customer needs here.