Corporate listening: unlocking insights from VOC, VOE and VOS for mutual benefits

Purpose Comparatively, while the voice of customers, employees, and other stakeholders have been identified as key components of corporate and marketing communication, little attention has been paid to how organizations listen to, make sense of, and use the information provided. The research reported in this article examined how a multinational corporation and its subsidiaries listen to their customers, employees, and other stakeholders and explored how corporate listening can be improved for mutual benefits. Design/methodology/approach This article reports participatory action research within a multinational corporation operating in Europe, Canada and Australia, which set out to become a “listening organization” to improve its relationships and performance. The research was informed by interviews, observation, content analysis of relevant documents, and critical reflection. Findings This analysis illustrates the need for and benefits of looking beyond statistical data to analyze textual, aural and visual data available from call centers, open-end survey comments, complaints, correspondence, social media and other sources, and it identifies methods, tools and technologies for ethical insightful corporate listening. Research limitations/implications This article advocates a “turn” from a focus on voice to focus on listening, noting that expression of the voice of customers, employees and other stakeholders has no value to them or organizations without active listening. Originality/value This paper reports an in-depth study of corporate listening to multiple stakeholders and identifies opportunities for increased insights and understanding that can lead to tangible benefits for both organizations and their stakeholders.