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When you have a product or service complaint, where do you go?

I've been noticing more and more than companies still primarily use their customer service phone centers as a primary means of measuring satisfaction of their products/services with consumers.

Why do consumers call customer service?

Maybe it's just me, but when I spend my time to call customer service, it's to get a specific issue resolved on that call. I do not call to "leave feedback."

Additionally, I go online first, perform a Google search, and see what resolutions are available to my problem (if any). My confidence level in finding an answer to my question on a company website is low. Odds are, I will find a discussion around my topic with other consumers who are experiencing the same issue. All of this takes place completely externally of a company's call center.

So, why are companies relying on call center data to measure satisfaction?

Call centers were previously the "front lines" of interaction with your customers. This is no longer the case. Online communities are the front lines. Let's take a look at a few examples:

1.) Apple's iPhone 4 Antennagate

Apple's antennagate was a great example of where Apple released statistics based on their own call center and support center data. While the data supported the fact that the antenna issue was small relative to previous reception issues on older iPhones, in no way did their data incorporate feedback and comments from the public. I own an iPhone 4 and didn't have the problems that others reported, but at the same time, Apple's call center is the last place I go for support for my device.

2.) Spike TV: "We actually don't get many viewer calls..."

Similarly, (I'm an MMA fan) Spike TV recently aired a tape delay of a UFC event that took place in the UK. The tape delay allowed Spike to air the show during primetime hours (8PM-11PM Eastern) in the U.S.

Because sports newscasts like ESPN report on the news in realtime, many MMA fans were furious when ESPN posted fight results during College Football on Saturday as the live event took place in the UK.

This prompted the MMA community to question why Spike TV would air the broadcast via tape delay. Their research shows that primetime is the best time -- and I totally understand this. It's actually when I want to watch these events (rather than early afternoon). However, this is what I found interesting:

There was quite a bit of hand-wringing among MMA fans this weekend over Spike TV showing UFC 120 on tape delay from London, leading to some fans finding out the results of the fights before they aired in the United States. But Spike TV says that the hand-wringing has been limited to a relatively small number of fans, and that the majority of viewers prefer to watch the fights in prime time.

"We actually don't get many viewer calls," said David Schwarz, VP Communications at Spike. "I've never received any and I know it's very minimal.

(Source)

I'm not even sure where I would go to call Spike TV. Their website contact form is only a customer service contact form (no email address, either). It's no wonder why they don't receive many viewer calls...and they shouldn't use this as the only source of data to measure satisfaction.

3.) Domino's Pizza utilizes multiple communication channels

A company can no longer rely on just their internal data they collect when a consumer calls or emails.

Via brandchannel.com:

Weiner says the new recipe "came from the thousands of direct consumer feedback messages on several media channels."

Domino's had an image problem with the public. They performed focus groups to understand why. Notice how they reached outside their normal data collection channels to truly measure satisfaction...we're not talking just call center data to back up a change in product.

Kudos to Domino's (and their new recipe is better, too!).

Consumers talk about brands outside of a brand's communication collection points

It's easier for me to post my opinions on a blog, Twitter, or Facebook. There are a lot of other opinions from consumers on these networks, too. Companies need to invest in monitoring tools to measure true satisfaction of their products -- because consumers are shifting behavior more and more to posting to their communities online than to offering feedback directly to the company.

In fact, it's not even a behavior shift because public opinion has always lived outside of a brand's communication channels -- there's just now technology to broadcast your opinions.

And for businesses, technology exists to measure consumer comments and sentiment outside of your normal data collection channels like customer service, email support, and product surveys.