Any regular reader of this column knows that Voice of the Customer (VoC) is one of many crucial data points needed by consumer-facing companies to survive today. Without it, product development and marketing teams will continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over, wasting time and money, through emotionally based gut decision making.
Data-driven product development decisions create more engaged customers. The most advanced way of ensuring that consumers will purchase the products you’re making is by uniting Voice of the Customer analytics technologies with 3D Digital Product Creation (DPC). Leveraging both of these functionalities together maximizes investment, value and ROI, while helping brands and retailers to stay competitive in today’s rapidly evolving landscape.
VoC can and should be employed at any stage of product development, with or without DPC. However, more mature companies that introduce high-fidelity 3D models into the VoC process reap the most significant benefits. On a “good, better, best” scale, using product photos at the end of sample development in leveraging VoC is a good way to help merchants make smart decisions on product selection and pricing. A better option is leveraging sketches and artwork earlier in the customer process to give directional design feedback. The best possible way of working is to capture VoC at the concept stage by testing 3D assets. Customers can then fully understand how the product will look and product teams will be given multiple opportunities to iterate based on highly valuable customer feedback. Testing 3D assets early in the process diminishes risk as well as sample creation expenses, since only the final “customer approved” versions would then be put into the sample creation pipeline.