People often think that if they are capturing and analyzing customer feedback then they are better off than not collecting it at all, but be careful; if you are misinterpreting the data, it may lead to decisions that may be more damaging than ignoring your customers all together. In his article on CRMExchange, Lior Arussy identifies some of the common biases in analyzing Voice of the Customer data.
- Hear only what you want to hear. This involves hearing only the things that you care about and overemphasizing the feedback that reinforces your stance on an issue, whatever it may be.
- Applying filters to the feedback. Filters cause you to ignore outliers or things that are considered outside of the indistry norm.
- Ignoring contradictory data. When you are gathering significant amounts of data, you are bound to see differing opinions. This does not mean the data is invalid. You should instead work to reconcile the data.
It is important to be aware of these biases and more importantly, maintain an open mind when listening to your customers.
