Keith McFarland, a two-time CEO and thought leader, recently wrote an article called Decentralizing Your Business. In it, he illustrates how in our fast-paced, information-driven world centralized organizations cannot provide information “the troops on the ground need” as quickly as the troops can gather it for themselves. I find this concept particularly interesting when applied to customer insight programs.

Many corporate ‘voice of the customer’ initiatives centrally gather feedback and analyze it. Or, perhaps more likely, they’re outsourced to a third party. But what happens? Customers self-identify as being unhappy, yet the information goes into a black hole or gets distributed to the field at the aggregate three to six months after it’s relevant and in such a way that no one can act on the specifics.

If you’re designing a customer insight program, I urge you to heed McFarland’s advice. Figure out how to engage the frontline in the process and allow them to lead wherever possible. The frontline knows the customer better than anyone else—and they’re better prepared to take action.

Steven Nicks, VP Steven.Nicks@phelongroup.com