VoC stands for Voice of the Customer. It refers to the way in which a business collects and analyses its customer data to extract customer insight and inform strategy. It's vital that you tune in to what your customers are telling you because, understanding customer perception, and responding in a way that drives an improved customer experience, is often the difference between business success and failure.
VoC programmes have become increasingly popular in recent years due to executive buy-in to the importance of customer experience and because technology can make light work of accumulating, analysing and sharing the vast quantities of customer data that we now collect. Here are our top four reasons why VoC could be a game changer for your business.
Note that this post discusses the fundamentals of VoC, and not how to build a VoC programme, we’ll cover that at a later date.
VoC will give you a single view of the customer
Marketers now have swathes of data at their fingertips sourced from online analytics, customer surveys, CRM systems and marketing campaigns, etc. etc. But your marketing team are not the only people in the organisation with intelligence on customers. Sales, operations and customer service are probably also collecting customer data in differing ways and separate systems. And don’t forget your colleagues in the frontline have face-to-face customer interactions every day. A VoC programme aims to bring all of the customer-facing / -touching functions in your organisation together to collate and analyse data in a single system. VoC enables you to not only create a cross-functional single source of customer data it allows everyone in the organisation to have the same level and quality of insight.
VoC will amplify the voice of the customer in your organisation
With a single repository for data and centralised analytics, you can pay close attention to what your customers are saying, and examine what is going on for your customer across the entire customer journey, from marketing to sales, from operations to aftercare. Working together, you can collectively agree what the most impactful improvements are to be made and track interventions to demonstrate improvements for your customer, colleagues and to the bottom line. It becomes a shared relationship and share responsibility and will amplify the customer’s voice to drive a more customer-centric culture in your organisation. And VoC enables you to measure customer-perceived value, and not just revenue and churn, which immediately makes your business metrics richer.
VoC will help you to identify issues before they become problems
It's vital that you tune in to what your customers are telling you because, understanding customer perception, and responding in a way that drives improved customer experience, is often the difference between business success and failure. Bill Gates once said that "your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning", but it is surprising how many companies still don’t have a credible way to listen to their customers, especially to the ones that are complaining. Make sure that your VoC programme has a robust process for catching and highlighting customer complaints as well as spotting unhappy customers in your analysis. Moreover, make sure that you don’t hide from a disgruntled customer or cower from a negative review. Don’t fail to learn from your mistakes, or you are missing out on one of the richest ways in which VoC can improve your customer’s experience, your employee engagement and your business as a whole.
VoC will give you an invaluable feedback loop to justify your decision making
A VoC programme enables you to really listen, and feel confident that you have built a deep understanding of why customers make certain decisions and what might change these behaviours. To realise improved customer experience and increased revenue make sure your VoC strategy consists of these four components:
Asking your customers what they think of you and why they need you (or don’t)
Understanding critical trends through analysing the data you’ve collected
Sharing reports and actionable insights with your colleagues
Implementing cross-business strategies in response to the feedback improved
And finally, VoC is not a one-off that you can deliver and walk away from. It just won’t do to only survey your customers once in a blue moon. Business is constantly changing, as are your customers. So keep asking questions, analysing your data, extracting insights, informing your colleagues, sharing lessons learnt and actioning improvement plans. Not only will you make work better for your employees but you’ll stay competitive and create an unbeatable experience for your customers.