The Harmonious Experience
Release Date:
Listening to your customers is the “window” to knowing how well your organization is performing in its customer experience efforts. Whether it’s an online support chat, a voice of the customer through employee program, or a CSAT survey, each of these touchpoints provide a metric to how your customers view your company. But HOW you create these listening opportunities matters, and keeping them consistent with your company’s brand is important. Pat Gibbons welcomes Joe Chiew, senior manager of consumer insights and voice of the customer at The Guitar Center Company, for a discussion on creating consistent listening experiences.
Joe Chiew
The Guitar Center Company
Connect with Joe
In this episode:
- Chapter 1: Introduction to Customer Experience Listening (00:00 – 00:49)
- Chapter 2: Setting Up a Consistent Listening Program (00:49 – 02:35)
- Chapter 3: Background and Role of Joe Chiew (02:35 – 04:20)
- Chapter 4: Exploring Guitar Center’s Customer Experience (04:20 – 07:02)
- Chapter 5: Implementing the Voice of the Customer Program (07:02 – 10:56)
- Chapter 6: Integrating and Interpreting Customer Feedback (10:56 – 12:42)
- Chapter 7: Impact and Achievements of the VOC Program (12:42 – 15:08)
- Chapter 8: Celebrating Wins and Achievements (15:08 – 16:18)
- Chapter 9: Executive Buy-In and OKR Framework (16:18 – 18:27)
- Chapter 10: Overcoming Obstacles and Future Plans (18:27 – 21:58)
- Chapter 11: Expanding to Sister Brands and Future Goals (21:58 – 23:32)
- Chapter 12: Take Home Value and Conclusion (23:32 – 24:41)
Highlights
Covering various interactions with your customers
“…the the best way to do it is to really think of it from the standpoint of the customer. Right? How are they interacting with us? What are the different experiences for us because of the breadth of what we cover? You know, the the journey for each musician is going to be different. For someone who is a guitarist, it’s going to be different from somebody who’s into recording or somebody who is primarily playing the keyboard. Right? So those are all different, and we cater to all of those. And so we want to make sure that we target those various points of interactions with our customers.”
Quantify then Prioritize
“…we went from making decisions off of anecdotal information to quantifying customer feedback. So an example of that is within two weeks of launching we saw a couple issues bubble up to the surface. And so internal teams were able to action on that right away. And that was a huge win for us. So perhaps the biggest difference is helping with prioritization when it comes to big bucket opportunity areas, we largely know what they are. But with this program we were able to not just quantify it from a customer’s lens, but also help us prioritize where we should focus.”
Transcript
Pat:00:00:00
If there’s one thing in customer experience that’s absolutely essential, it’s listening to your customers. And when you listen in multiple ways and make it all work together well, you can hear your customers much more clearly.
Joe:00:00:15
We really wanted to have kind of a single source of truth when it comes to customer feedback, and we were designing a program that addresses the needs of each of the departments and all the different channels, while providing that consistency at enterprise level. You know, when we take it all back, we want to be able to look at it in a consistent way.
Pat:00:00:35
Creating a consistent listening experience. On this episode of The CX Leader Podcast.
Announcer:00:00:49
The CX Leader Podcast is produced by Walker, an experience management firm that helps our clients accelerate their XM success. You can find out more at walkerinfo.com.
Pat:00:01:00
Hello and welcome to this episode of The CX Leader Podcast. I’m Pat Gibbons, your host today, and I’ll begin with our usual reminder: it’s a great time to be a CX leader. And on this podcast, we explore topics and themes to help leaders like you develop great programs and deliver amazing experiences for your customers. You know, listening to your customers is the window to knowing how well your organization is performing in its customer experience efforts. Whether it’s an online support chat, a voice of the customer through your employees, or a variety of surveys or any number of listening methods, each of these provide a metric to how your customers view your company. But how you create these listening opportunities matters, and how you bring them together matters, and keeping them consistent with your company’s brand. It all matters. On this episode, we’re going to look at a case study in creating a consistent listening experience. Joe Chiew is senior manager of consumer insights and voice of the customer at The Guitar Center Company. Joe, welcome to The CX Leader Podcast.
Joe:00:02:15
It’s great to be here.
Pat:00:02:16
Well, you know, we’re excited to have you. I know our producer is really excited because he’s a Guitar Center customer. And, you know, he’s into all the audio that we do on the podcast. But let’s start out to give a little context. Tell us a little bit of your background. How did you get into CX?
Joe:00:02:35
Yeah, sure. So I actually have a background in consumer insights. I’ve been doing this for over 15 years. I’ve largely been on the agency side where I was kind of exposed to a whole host of methodologies, research approaches. And, you know, I’ve had the opportunity to work in many different industries: telecommunications, automotive, fashion. You know, but, you know, three years ago, that’s when I joined, uh, Guitar Center. And I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to restart the consumer insights function at Guitar Center from from pretty much the ground up. Um, and that’s one of the things that really attracted me to the position. And, you know, I don’t think I fully appreciated how rare it was, but I was really lucky about the timing. And, you know, all the stars kind of aligned. Um, yeah. And, and we’ll probably talk about it a bit more. But, uh, for the consumer insights team, we do support the entire GC enterprise, which includes multiple brands, private labels and so on. And, you know, when I started for as much research that I was doing prior to joining, I was quite surprised by how big we are. And so in terms of the variety of work that the team is doing here, I can I can guarantee you that I’ll never get bored here.
Pat:00:03:57
Well. That’s good. It’ll keep you out of trouble. Um, but, uh, but yeah, let’s tell us a little bit about Guitar Center. You know, obviously I don’t work directly with you or with the account, but I have learned a little bit about it, and I find it pretty fascinating. And like you say, many people are probably familiar with the Guitar Center brand, but it’s it’s more than that, maybe. Tell us a little bit about the company.
Joe:00:04:20
Yeah, sure. So we could probably start off with Guitar Center. Like you said, that’s probably what most people think of when we think about the Guitar Center Enterprise. So it’s it is the largest musical instrument retailer in the US. We’re national. We have over 300 stores in the US. And, you know, despite the name, we don’t just sell guitars, we sell just about every instrument that you can think of, including the equipment, accessories, software to support all musicians. So, you know, whether whether you’re just starting out or you’re a serious musician, we carry everything that, that you could need. Um, we also provide services. So that’s lessons, equipment rental, instrument repairs and instrument setups. And we also buy and sell used and vintage gear. Um, and, you know, we have a omnichannel presence, right? We we have the, the 300 plus brick and mortar stores. And obviously we have a presence on digitally and online. And we also have a team of gear advisors at our contact center.
Pat:00:05:28
Yeah. It really interesting. And uh, you know, I do know that even just, you know we can talk about the in-store experience first, that’s pretty unique. It’s from what I understand a very immersive experience. Can you tell us a little about that?
Joe:00:05:44
Yeah, sure. So as as you might imagine, when it comes to instruments and instrument purchasing, um, you know, you really do need that tactile experience. Uh, for certain instruments, you need to have it in hand to be able to play it, you know. No, no. Two instruments are identical. And so it really makes a difference for the musician. So you know, in our stores we have a couple rooms that are kind of dedicated. We have an acoustic room that has specifically two acoustic guitars. And it’s a smaller room, very intimate, um, for you to be able to play. And one thing that’s unique about our stores is, um, any guitar that you see, whether it’s an entry level one or a really expensive one, you can point that out and we’ll take it down and let you try it out and let you play it. We encourage that, actually. We’re not we’re not trying to lock it away or hide it away. We want people to get their hands on it and to play it. And I think that’s one of the greatest things about Guitar Center.
Pat:00:06:50
Yeah. No, I love that. And, you know, I’ve heard stories of, you know, people going in and then they end up kind of jamming with the other employees or somebody else that wanders into the store. And…
Joe:00:07:01
Yeah.
Pat:00:07:02
…I think it just is a really unique environment that I think any customer experience leader can appreciate. So obviously you kind of took on a big task. You mentioned that you kind of got to start it from the ground up, but you really wanted to take kind of a holistic approach. Um, you know, you’ve got a kind of an omnichannel experience, but also having omnichannel listening must have been important. Tell us how you got started and what your vision for that was.
Joe:00:07:38
Yeah. So, you know, over the past three years that that I’ve been here at Guitar Center and as the team got up and running was stood up a lot, a number of core programs, you can kind of think of it as your more quote unquote, traditional consumer insights. And last year we expanded into the CX space and launched our voice of customer program. So it’s still very new. You know, it’s less than a year old. Um, but when we started that, we really wanted to have kind of a single source of truth when it comes to customer feedback. Um, and we’re designing a program that addresses the needs of each of the departments and all the different channels that we talked about earlier while providing, you know, that consistency at an enterprise level. You know, when we take it all back, we want to be able to, um, look at it in a consistent way.
Pat:00:08:30
Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about kind of the various listening posts and different listening methods that you have tried to pull together. Because I think any customer experience leader really, it’s a struggle sometimes to figure out, well, what’s the best way to, to listen to customers. And even doing something as traditional as, as surveys can take a lot of work.
Joe:00:08:54
Right.
Pat:00:08:54
And so the idea of having a lot of different ways to listen. You know, it’s a challenge. And so everybody wants to know how do you do that?
Joe:00:09:04
Yeah. I mean, the the best way to do it is to really think of it from the standpoint of the customer. Right? How are they interacting with us? What are the different experiences for us because of the breadth of what we, um, what we cover? You know, the the journey for each musician is going to be different. You know, for someone who is a guitarist, it’s going to be different from somebody who’s into recording or somebody who is primarily playing the keyboard. Right? So those are all different, and we cater to all of those. And so we want to make sure that we target those various points of interactions with our customers. So in our case, um, kind of the primary areas was after a purchase or a return we would make sure that that is one of our listening posts, and we made sure to cover all of our primary channels. So that’s whether it’s in store or online or in the contact center. So we made sure to have listening posts at each one of those interaction points. And then in addition to that we have a couple of passive listening posts as well. So that’s on the website as well as in store. And then one thing that was also important for us is after someone had a phone call with us, with our gear advisors, you know, whether it’s inbound or outbound. And, you know, this includes both purchase and non purchase producing calls. We made sure to, uh, set up a listening post there as well.
Pat:00:10:42
And how do you put it all together? I mean you’ve got all these different streams kind of coming in. How do you go about interpreting it and knowing the best way to put it to use?
Joe:00:10:56
Yeah. So there are a few things, right? One is to we made sure at the start we were very intentional in terms of finding champions and finding stakeholders and making sure that we had a good intake process. And we talked to everyone in terms of what were their needs. Right? We made sure to tailor everything to each of the departments and each of the channels, and what each team needed and wanted to get out of this program. And then in addition to that, with kind of that oversight as a as a VOC team, um, we we wanted to make sure that that was consistent as well. So it’s important to tailor it to each person. But you want to make sure that when we take it all back together and look at it on an enterprise level, that everything is consistent, right? So, um, there are many ways that a customer interacts with us, and it’s all very different from each other. And it’s important to understand those unique experiences and ensure that our customers have that seamless experience, no matter how they prefer to engage with us.
Pat:00:12:06
Yeah. And it’s such an important point about how you you said you started with, you know, the various departments and what they needed and everything. I assume that must have created much more of a sense of buy in.
Joe:00:12:20
Yes.
Pat:00:12:21
That they were, you know, part of what was going on. Is that what you found?
Joe:00:12:25
Yes. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. I think it’s very important to engage with everyone from the start and to keep them informed as we go along. Um, you know, like you said, that way we do get buy in and it’s it’s really it’s easier as we go along.
Pat:00:12:42
Yeah. Yep.
Pat:00:12:53
What kind of difference has the program made so far. What have you seen?
Joe:00:12:58
Yeah. I’ll give you a few examples. There’s some examples where they were goals that we had set out to achieve, and some of them that were unexpected but a pleasant surprise.
Pat:00:13:10
Great.
Joe:00:13:10
Um, so we, we went from, you know, making decisions off of anecdotal information to quantifying customer feedback. So an example of that is, you know, within two weeks of launching, we saw a couple issues bubble up to the surface. And so internal teams were able to action on that right away. And that was a huge win for us. So perhaps the biggest difference is helping with prioritization when it comes to big bucket opportunity areas, we largely know what they are. But with this program, uh, we were able to not just quantify it from a customer’s lens, but also help us prioritize where we should focus. So what should we tackle first to have the biggest impact. So an example of this was at the beginning of the year, as leadership was developing the 2024 Strat plan. You know, we we had an idea of what we needed to focus on through internal evaluations of the business, as well as some CI work that we had done. But the VOC program helped validate that as well as help prioritize. So told us where we should focus on to have the biggest impact on customer experience and sentiment. And I’ll give another example, like a more recent example that kind of put the two ideas together. So we had started some initiatives based on anecdotal feedback. And you know, it took a little bit of digging, but the program helped show that, yes, there were some isolated complaints, but it wasn’t the priority and it wasn’t the root cause. So if we had moved forward with those initiatives, yes, it would have made a difference in those isolated cases, but it wouldn’t have solved the bigger issue. And you know, when once we found that out, the team pivoted to target the thing that really mattered first before kind of moving on to the to the next step.
Pat:00:15:08
Yeah, to use it for prioritization makes so much sense. And and really some of the things that are successful are often the discoveries that you make that may tell you you’re headed down the wrong path or…
Joe:00:15:22
Right, Right.
Pat:00:15:22
…one as, as you mentioned, it wouldn’t have had as much impact as putting the emphasis in another area.
Joe:00:15:30
Yeah.
Pat:00:15:30
So great examples. And any other examples, Joe?
Joe:00:15:33
Yeah. So, you know, for a lot of folks, myself included, we’re often hard on ourselves and very focused on areas where we need to improve or areas that we need to fix. So when we design the program, we were very intentional about wanting to highlight the good parts as well. So whenever a customer had an exceptional experience we prominently displayed their shout outs and their kudos of specific associates to kind of celebrate the wins. And, you know, managers and supervisors and our stores and contact centers were already doing this with their associates, but we wanted to put this front and center to make sure everything was captured, and also to provide visibility of our associates up to higher levels of management.
Pat:00:16:18
Love that. I mean, the personal touch means so much. You know, you mentioned leadership team and, uh, you know, some of their beginning of the year planning. Yeah. How was the program accepted at the leadership level?
Joe:00:16:31
Yeah. So that was… We… I was very fortunate to get the buy in at the start. And um, so that was great. You know, folks were on board. Um, one of the, um, unexpected but good surprises was, um, you know, we actually had a new CEO join the company kind of around the time that we launched the program, and he introduced an, an the OKR framework to the company. And…
Pat:00:17:01
Right.
Joe:00:17:01
…it’s something that we’ve really embraced. I’m not sure, are you familiar with the the OKRs?
Pat:00:17:07
I am, I’ve actually read, you know, some of the classic books on it and everything, but you might want to give a brief overview for our listeners.
Joe:00:17:14
Yeah. So the OKRs that stands for objectives and key results. So it’s a it’s a framework to help organizations and teams stay on track with kind of our North Star vision. Right? And I won’t get into the details. But one of the key things with OKR is it’s very focused on outcomes. And it’s important that it’s measurable outcomes to gauge whether it was successfully working towards our goals. And, you know, since the VOC program was already running, we were able to help support the OKR framework by establishing baseline levels, set target goals, and provide ongoing measurements so the key results that we have are measured by the VOC program and helping support the the organization.
Pat:00:18:00
I mean, that is a big win when your outcomes or your program are woven in with the metrics of the company.
Joe:00:18:08
Yeah, exactly. And and you know, for me, as a, as a practitioner in this space, it’s it’s really heartening to see us, you know, fully embrace the voice of the customer in, in this way, you know, it’s we’re holding ourselves to it. In addition to the typical business metrics that that we look at and most companies look at.
Pat:00:18:27
Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning the OKR framework because that’s, you know, it’s more than just a series of metrics. It’s a cultural thing when…
Joe:00:18:36
Mhm. Yeah.
Pat:00:18:36
…a company adopts it and everybody knows the language and everybody understands how that works. And so again, to have that woven in, you know, the, you know, the customer programs and listening programs woven into that, it’s a critical element to make sure that it’s very strategic. So really neat. Well, I’m sure, you know, I’m guessing at least along the way, you have to have some bumps in the road. Any obstacles that you’re willing to to chat about?
Joe:00:19:09
Yeah. So one of them is the lack of email addresses. So…
Pat:00:19:15
Mhm. Okay.
Joe:00:19:16
…you know, not all customers have an email on file with us, especially when it comes to in-store customers, folks that stop shop in our brick, brick and mortar stores. So, you know, it’s very important that we reach out to all of our customers and hear from them. So that’s something that we’re actively looking into to make sure that our how we get better about our reach. Um, another one is not really an obstacle, but it could be without the right mindset. Um, I think it’s just understanding that not everything will be perfect when you stand up a program, right? There are going to be changes after you launch as more folks engage with the program. So I think it’s something to definitely account for with your team, especially when it comes to bandwidth and so on to tackle that. And, you know, for me, I actually see it as a good thing because, um, that only comes with more and more engagement and, and that’s a good thing, right? As more people get engaged with your program and, and you’re continuing to improve your program in a way that best supports the organization and their changing needs. Um, so, yeah.
Pat:00:20:32
Well, I can tell just by the way that you’ve set this up that you’re not done. The future probably holds more. What else have you got planned?
Joe:00:20:41
Yeah, many, many things. Uh, we have a good foundation, but, you know, we’re still very, a very new program. Um, you know, we already talked about kind of the things we’re looking into for the in-store listening posts. We’re actually currently implementing a program for our sister brand, Music and Arts, and that’s extremely interesting and a very different business where educators like band directors and music teachers are a big focus for us. Um, a couple others are around plugging in our existing sources to kind of get to that centralized hub and a single source of truth with the program. Uh, in terms of helping folks in the organization understand the customer experience, we’re trying to be even more holistic. So things that I’m thinking about are like kind of our social listening and plugging that in. Um, I think one last one is around automating our closed loop follow ups as, as well as next step action items. So right now it’s kind of a manual process. And we want to try to automate that. So we get quicker with that and kind of ease up in terms of the amount of bandwidth that needs to go into that.
Pat:00:21:58
So another quick thing. You kind of just touched on a little bit of your sister brands and that’s those are probably the areas that people are not as familiar with. Can you tell us a little more about those?
Joe:00:22:09
Yeah, we have a few sister brands within the Guitar Center family, so I’ve mentioned Music and Arts and that’s… Music and Arts, they focus on the band and orchestra side of the business. They’re also an omnichannel. We have over 250 stores, and they support our music educators as well as school services. And, you know, we range all the way to AVDG as well. That’s more B2B and that that looks at designs and engineers and we install audio, video and lighting systems for homes and businesses.
Pat:00:22:50
Well, it’s an amazing business. And, you know, provides a fascinating experience, omnichannel experience, which everybody seems to be striving for. And I’m just really impressed with how you’ve taken an omnichannel approach to listening and what you’ve built in a short amount of time. It’s just a really cool. But we’ve come to that point in our program where we ask you for one tip. We call it our take home value. You know one thing that if you could tell CX leaders, here’s one thing that you might be able to do in pretty short order that would make a difference. So, Joe, what’s your take home value for today?
Joe:00:23:32
So my take home value is to find a colleague in a different team and talk with them. Learn about their team, their day to day, what challenges they face, how you can help as a CX leader. And the key part about this is listening to them. It’s not about us talking, it’s about us listening to them. And this applies however big your program is, whether or not you have one yet, and whether or not you have the answers to what they’re saying. And it’s it’s something that’s served me really well, um, in my tenure here in terms of, you know, building those relationships with my coworkers, I’ve learned so much from from them. And it’s also about getting the word out about my team.
Pat:00:24:20
It’s great advice. Joe Chiew is senior manager of consumer insights and voice of the customer at the Guitar Center Company. Joe, thanks for being a guest on The CX Leader Podcast.
Joe:00:24:32
Thanks for having me.
Pat:00:24:33
We’re glad we could have you. And if anybody listening wanted to continue the conversation, could they, is it okay if they reach out to you, like via LinkedIn?
Joe:00:24:40
Yeah, of course.
Pat:00:24:41
All right. Good. And if you want to discuss this topic with any one of our experts, or you have a great idea for a topic for a future episode, email us at podcast@walkerinfo.com. We’d love to hear from you. Be sure to rate The CX Leader Podcast through your podcast service and leave a review, because your feedback will help us improve the show and deliver the best possible value to you, our listeners. Check out our website cxleaderpodcast.com. From there you can follow the show and you can find all of our previous 300 plus episodes and a link to our blog, which we update regularly. The CX Leader Podcast is a production of Walker. We’re an experience management firm that helps companies accelerate their XM success, and you can read more about us at walkerinfo.com. Thank you for listening and remember, it’s a great time to be a CX leader and we’ll see you next time.
Tags: Joe Chiew The Guitar Center Company OKR Pat Gibbons brand voice of the customer listening