A friend started a new company. It’s not a tech company; he makes physical products to sell to consumers. The products are traditionally sold through big box retailers as the main method of distribution (think Walmart or Target). This poses an interesting problem because consumers don’t interact with my friend’s company. The big box retailers sell tons of stuff, and they aren’t going to spend time trying to understand or get insights from their customers who buy my friend’s products. They’ll share information like sales metrics, and if my friend’s products aren’t selling they’ll tell him that, but they won’t be able to tell him why.

My friend recognizes that not being connected to the end consumer will be an issue. He wants his finger on the pulse of his customers so he can adjust as needed to keep his products relevant to them. Otherwise, their tastes could change, and he wouldn’t know it until his sales at big box retailers decline materially. Even then, he wouldn’t know why.

So, he’s considering adding someone to his team whose entire job is to be the voice of the customer. They’d be responsible for staying in touch with end users of the products, gleaning insights from them, and translating those insights into data that their team can use to make decisions.

I’ve heard of voice-of-the-customer-type roles in software and tech, which I think is much easier to accomplish. There’s often a direct relationship with customers because they’re buying from your website. And there are plenty of tools that help you gauge how customers are using (or failing to use) your products. But I’ve never considered how you keep a finger on the pulse of customers who buy physical products through retailers like Walmart.

I’m really curious about this and can’t wait to see how this plays out for my friend. I think he’s on the right track with his voice-of-the-customer role.