Voice of the Customer – Is it a new blanket for business?

I have been catching up on blog posts written by Valeria Maltoni on her Conversation Agent web site. Her post “Why Data Without a Soul is Meaningless” brought up a question in my mind. See, at the end of the post, she wrote,

“Whenever a client or a colleague asks for data to prove a thesis, I cringe a little on the inside. Because in many cases, especially related to social anything, it is a matter of preference — and you don’t dictate preference, you choose.”

I relate to those words. Most likely because my career and passion is marketing communications and we all know about that ongoing ROI discussion.

Anyway, I thought about it and posted a comment (thus now this post) around this thought:

“Perhaps that is one issue? The fact that businesses may jump on social media outlets and try to dictate preference as “Mad Men”, while forgetting the definition of social. I continue to hear the phrase “voice of the customer” being bandied about and think two things: 1) businesses are beginning to understand it’s about “us”, and 2) businesses are still operating in the same manner and just using the phrase as a blanket.”

What do you think about how businesses are “embracing” the “Voice of the Customer”?