• 0

Marketoonist | Tom Fishburne

Marketoonist is the thought bubble of Tom Fishburne. Marketing cartoons, content marketing with a sense of humor, keynote speaking.

  • Campaigns
  • Speaking
  • About
  • Cartoons
  • Contact
  • Book
  • 0

voice of the customer

December 2, 2018

  • Paid licensing options include high resolution download.
  • Presentation $40 Add to Cart
  • Newsletter or Website $125 Add to Cart
  • Corporate Blog/Sponsored Post $60 Add to Cart
  • Looking for other licensing options? click here
  • View Cart
TweetLinkedInFacebookEmail

A couple months ago, I cartooned about customer survey fatigue and the barrage of satisfaction surveys for every minor brand interaction.

Marketers sometimes forget that the survey experience is as much a part of customer experience as the customer experience they’re designed to measure. Boring, long, or pestering surveys leave a brand impression too.

Your Ad Ignored Here
"If marketing kept a diary, this would be it."
- Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs
Order Now

I recently bought a new car and was coached repeatedly by the sales rep about what surveys would be sent by the corporate office and how important a 5-star rating is to that dealership to keep low prices, blah, blah, blah. And yet, when some problems emerged (they misplaced the deposit check, they made an error in entering my home address so that statements were returned), it was frustratingly difficult to give that feedback and have those problems resolved.

If we truly want to hear the voice of the customer, I think organizations need to learn to listen when it’s most convenient for the customer, not when it’s most convenient for the organization.

When I helped launch the method brand to the UK market a few years ago, we tried an experiment of sharing the responsibility of taking customer calls across our 10-person office. The phone number printed on every product rang, not in a remote call center, but in our office. We took turns answering the calls.

At times, it was frustrating to have to shift gears from working on a forecast spreadsheet to suddenly talking with Nigel from Edinburgh about how our product failed to remove a stain on his granite counter tops. But, overall, it was magical. It reminded everyone in the office, from accounting, to product development, to marketing, who we ultimately worked for.

That experiment brought the voice of the customer into the room. It was sometimes inconvenient. But that inconvenience was ultimately a good thing. Because rather than being used to validate the status quo, it nudged us to be better. Real customer experience insights often come from unstructured feedback that doesn’t fit neatly in a customer satisfaction survey.

Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years.

“The Customer Journey” March 2018

“Customer Journey Mapping” April 2016

“Point of Sale” April 2018

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • Paid licensing options include high resolution download.
  • Presentation $40 Add to Cart
  • Newsletter or Website $125 Add to Cart
  • Corporate Blog/Sponsored Post $60 Add to Cart
  • Looking for other licensing options? click here
  • View Cart
Your Ad Ignored Here Book Image

15 years of Marketoonist compiled for your marketing pleasure.

Order Now

About Marketoonist

Marketoonist is the thought bubble of Tom Fishburne a career marketer and cartoonist. Learn More...

Browse Blog Posts

Most Popular Cartoons Browse Categories

Marketoon Campaigns

contentmarketing

Content marketing with a sense of humor.

Learn More

Keynote Speaking

speakingworkshops

Insightful, funny, and visual keynote talks and workshops.

Book Tom to Speak

Search Blog Posts

Interested? Let’s Talk!

Footer Form - Let's Talk

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Marketoons

Browse Categories
Spacing Things Out

About Marketoonist

Tom Fishburne is the Founder and CEO of Marketoonist, a content marketing studio that helps businesses reach their audiences with cartoons.

© 2025 Marketoonist