Visit purpose

A necessary first step in any customer visit process is to understand why you are conducting the market research in the first place. As alluded to in the preceding quote from Alice in Wonderland, unless you have clearly defined objectives for the VoC initiative you are undertaking, how will you use the information you learn, how will you know when you have gotten there?

To define the task at hand, the best thing you can do is to write it down! While it is often beneficial to visit customers, even when there is no clear goal, you will not end up where you need to be. And though it is often difficult to fully articulate what it is you hope to accomplish, by writing it down you reap a number of benefits.

First, it forces you to decide between various paths and make a commitment, both to yourself and the organization. All too often, product and marketing managers are pulled in multiple directions with multiple priorities, all of which need to be done. When analyzing a potential new...