Bruce-Temkin [Posted by Bruce Temkin]

As you may (or may not) be aware, we just closed the nomination period for Forrester's first ever Voice Of The Customer (VoC) Award. So I'm now in the process of grading the submissions with a couple of other analysts. It won't be an easy process, because we received more than 35 excellent nominations. I'll be announcing the winner on the first day of our Customer Experience Forum in New York next month.

For those of you who are interested in VoC, take a look at my recent report, Voice Of The Customer: The Next Generation, which looks at some important trends in the area.

You may also want to look at a recent post on my personal blog which looks at recent comments from Eduardo Castro-Wright, the vice chairman of Wal-Mart. Here's a quote that I really liked:

"I walk around the store and approach customers and ask them if they have any recommendations for us. Are there things that we’re not doing that we should be doing?… I just go mostly on my own and I get there mostly unannounced and talk to associates and ask them questions about their jobs… Almost always, you get enormous insight from those who spend their days taking care of customers."

Listening doesn't always require a high-tech solution.