The voice of the customer (VoC) grows louder every day, and the VoC strategy your organization employs can have a huge impact on customer engagement and loyalty, as well as your bottom line. Set yourself up for voice of the customer success and get the most out of your VoC program with these five strategies.
1. Listening versus hearing: One of your service goals is most likely to listen to customers. However, simply capturing what customers say and when they say it isn’t really listening, it’s hearing. The next step is to analyze what you hear and consider it with a clear intention and purpose in mind. Using voice of the customer data to recognize patterns, identify customer preferences and desires, and pinpoint service problems is key to nurturing better relationships with customers. That involves truly listening to what customers have to say and using that information to create an action plan for service improvement.
2. Capturing indirect data: VoC data is spread across many channels today, including social media, emails, texts, online forums, videos, and blogs. These types of indirect sources account for 80 percent of collected business data. Tune in to these varied channels, and you will gain a wealth of insight into customer attitudes, sentiments, and behaviors. Analyzing all this indirect data to make sense of it is the next step. That process can be helped along by using text analytics to synthesize information gathered from varied channels.
3. Comprehensive feedback channels. Instituting a program to capture customer feedback across every channel they utilize is key to improving loyalty and gaining a competitive edge. A customer is more than a single phone call or email. Rather, the customer experience is a complex picture made up of every interaction between that customer and the company he or she does business with. Your voice of the customer system must be seamlessly integrated with every part of your business.
4. Making use of mobile: According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 56% of American adults have a smartphone – many of which use their device to access social media. That means customers are talking with and about your company on social media and interacting in other ways on their mobile devices. It makes good business sense to create a mobile strategy for capturing voice of the customer data. Mobile engagement and listening is key to creating a complete picture of a customer’s entire experience. Mobile devices also provide an excellent way to engage customers in the moment, wherever they are. This empowers customers, as well as delivering valuable insights back to your organization.
5. Integrating VoC with business systems. In order to gain the greatest value from VoC initiatives, they must integrate with your entire business strategy. Combining customer feedback with other business systems such as finance and operations can help you make better business decisions and measure the value of customer satisfaction more accurately.
A successful voice of the customer program not only captures data, but uses it to provide insights and knowledge that then empower key decision makers to act in the best interests of both customers and the bottom line.
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