Successful Voice of the Customer Program Brings Exponential Business Growth

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Harsha Khubwani

August 4, 2022

“Any powerful idea is absolutely fascinating and absolutely useless until we choose to use it," said Richard Bach, a famous American author.

Large data sets are now available for processing at most firms as big data analytics is no more an alien concept. Analyzing the data is far easier than implementing the outcome of the analyzed data. Think customer insights report as an idea put on a sheet. And that idea is useless if you don’t put it into action.

A brand must verify the alignment of its daily operations with what its customers desire from its product or service. If workings are not in place, the brand has to introduce the Voice of the Customer program to combine the organizational processes with customer-centricity. To get desired results, an organization needs to utilize the processed data as input for offering a better customer experience.

Implement VoC Program In Business Operations

A brand should be obsessive about obtaining benefits from the customer's voice to its fullest. But, haphazardly making decisions based on output produced by processing VoC can harm your business. The VoC insights brought into directed motion solely assists you in achieving your CX goals faster.

Further, proper execution of the VoC program brings transparency in line of action, allowing you to fix broken, hidden, or malicious parts of customer-oriented processes. It is necessary to fit the VoC program into the business model to enhance performance and customer service.

Here are 4 steps to implementing a VoC program in your business operations -

1) Collect Customer Responses

The accumulation method of customer responses needs utmost attention as they act as input for the whole VoC system. A brand can collect customer data through various private and public channels.

Private data sources include internally acquired customer data through customer survey, NPS (Net Promoter Score), chatbot conversations, and direct feedback forms. Public data sources include forums, blog comments, ratings on eCommerce sites, and social media.

Apart from that, conducting customer interviews or listening to recorded customer calls are a few ways to get the data. These datasets assist in the rigorous interpretation of the positive and negative feedback that defines further plans and steps an organization can take to make customers happy.

2) Analyze The Feedback

Understanding customer needs and trends that attract potential buyers requires an in-depth analysis of what customers say. The analysis process consists of cleaning and modeling the data gathered from customer research.

Cleaning and modeling customer data from the traditional method takes a lot of time. So a brand can leverage technologies like AI and ML to get speedy output. Besides, you can also opt for third-party platforms to save more time and focus on critical operations.

The AI-enabled customer experience insight platforms thoroughly scrutinize the data for your organization. These technology-driven platforms have the power to analyze billions of customer reviews to generate actionable insight.

3) Act On Obtained Insights

After obtaining insights from the raw data, it is necessary to identify the actions that will bring more business and revenue. The judgments become an easy task with customer insights, and the employees can make effectual product alterations or additions based on decisions made by the c-suite.

Additionally, it is a fact that customer data management consumes enough of the resources and energy of a company. But, the right decisions supported by actions and under the influence of customer insight make every effort worth it.

The objective of acting on insights is to help the company with customer retention and acquisition in the long run. A brand that works continuously on practical decisions backed by customer feedback grows exponentially in every aspect.

4) Circle Back To Customer Feedback

According to a Salesforce report, 66% of customers want companies to understand their distinctive requirements and needs.

Today we are surrounded by a dynamic environment, and customer necessities keep changing frequently. Understanding the unique wants of the customer is a tricky puzzle to solve. However, customer success comes only by fulfilling customer expectations.

A company must keep itself up to date with the latest activities in the consumer market, which is only possible by visiting new customer feedback and following up with customers. Working on new responses and previously taken actions together makes an indestructible mechanism that serves the purpose.

Monitor VoC Program For Optimizing Performance

The VoC strategy on the wrong track brings all your employee efforts back to zero. Monitoring the VoC program is critical for keeping the vision and functions intact. Top executives should monitor the implemented VoC program periodically to measure the impact of actions taken at the organizational level driven by the customer voice.

You can start monitoring the VoC program by checking whether or not the employee is well aware of the efforts the VoC data demands. Create a hierarchy to assist in better administration of the process. Give authority to proficient candidates to observe and keep a check on the performance of the concerned member of the staff.

Furthermore, it will simplify the assignment as an employee is well-informed about the goals of the procedure and what performance the company needs. Transparency in the working space gives space to customer-centric approaches, as clear communication allows employees to work together and solve customer problems effortlessly.

Another way to scrutinize is by looking at what customers say about the changes brought to the product. Going back again to newly generated customer insights can help you to check the flow of the work. Create a customer journey map and go through the progress of different teams. Giving importance to the consumers provide more awarding outcomes.

For example, in the coming years, the chocolate industry in the US will gain an astonishing amount of consumers as chocolates are a high-demand food product. So, considering this fact, capturing the voices of consumers is critical for brands to expand their business. A customer insight report by Clootrack suggests five factors driving customer experience in the US chocolate industry that indicate what customers want from a chocolate company. Acting on this customer insight will assure better customer service and brand success at all costs.

4 Ways to Improve Voice of the Customer Program

The CX success of a brand lies in a proper functional VoC program. Implementation and monitoring are not enough to keep up with your VoC game. Consistent work on the VoC cycle enhances the system and trains the workforce to bring expected developments.

1) Recognize VoC Goals

Rushing on the decisions and trying to make an immediate impact will not improve the customer experience. A brand must figure out the motive behind its proceedings to reach the chosen destination.

Determining your VoC goals will answer what result you can expect, what tools to use for a successful VoC plan, how to streamline customer-driven strategies, and many responsive questions that target your advancement.

2) Let Everyone Hear Success Stories

Brand success stories are doses of encouragement for an employee and promotion of your product for a potential customer. Top executives should ensure that employees hear about how efforts they put in have brought significant change in the life of consumers.

Likewise, if those success narratives reach the right audience, they significantly enrich the VoC program. The response from your customers will help you tweak strategies in favor of consumer benefit. Stories motivate employees and customers to provide additional input that supplies a higher value to the organization.

3) Implement Voice of the Employee

The Voice of the Employee (VoE) is equivalently influential as the Voice of the Customer. Employees who regularly engage with the product can give relevant feedback. Having a good knowledge of customer wants, employees complement the VoC program with the priceless information they hold.

Also, the VoE upgrades the VoC program as employees get an employee-centric surrounding to work. It enables them to act efficiently and increase the number of satisfied customers to a significant level.

4) Build Framework Through Directed Actions

Empowering the VoC program becomes uncomplicated if an organization defines the task structure with orchestrated actions. It instantly entitles the brand to address the issues of existing customers and specify the possible innovations consumers may like to have in the product. Consequently, allowing teams to move forward accordingly.

Necessary changes in the working framework unwind with every step taken in the VoC program. So, while revisiting the complete system performance for enhancement, you can witness the improvement in the VoC program over and above.

Impact Of Successful VoC Program On Your Business

Every other company now focuses on pursuing customer-centric methods to attract and retain consumers. And because of that, the VoC program is promoted heavily due to its development-oriented nature that guarantees customer-focused solutions. The outcome of a thriving VoC program is no less than magic for a brand.

Here are 5 impacts of a successful VoC program on your business:

1) Employee Satisfaction

A well-instructed employee never fails to engage actively with the responsibility given by the company. A reasonably established VoC program nourishes employees with a detailed picture of what the company aims to achieve. The employees furnish more productive work than ever, bringing the company close to its goals.

The consequences of endeavors put by employees for consumer delight and company flourishment give them satisfaction. Each and every brand should organize victory sessions to celebrate small and big wins and award employees for their appreciable work to further take advantage of the VoC program.

2) Closure Of Feedback Loop

Merely examining the customer data on no account ensures success. The VoC program enforces the implementation of the decisions taken after analyzing the customer insights. It is a never-ending process that enhances the organizational activities after every iteration.

For each iteration, the VoC program confirms if or not the customer feedback for the present iteration is in effect. Hence, closing the customer feedback loop and traversing back to the first step for better enrichment and working on weak areas.

3) Impactful Decision Making

Brand understanding of customers aids a company in determining its brand management strategies. The VoC program allows a brand to comprehend how customers view them. Company decisions based on customer perspective save a lot of time and money, strengthening the core of the business.

On top of that, VoC benefits decision-makers by letting them characterize and run more personalized campaigns that can bring in more consumers as the exercises are customer-oriented. At last, it facilitates you to start repairing the elements that result in the dissatisfaction of the customers.

4) Improved Product Quality

Without a doubt, the improvement of product quality is the most apparent impact of the VoC program on a business. Carefully listening and molding customer opinions into products always make it better for the target audience. With better product quality, customer satisfaction elevates as they can feel the difference in the product after executing the alterations.

Other than that, the reformed version of the product possibly widens the customer base and strengthens a customer relationship with the brand. Ultimately, the VoC program leads the organization to a happy customer that drives CX success and more revenue.

5) Enhanced Customer Experience

In Harvard Business Review, Rob Markey, a business strategist, stated that Loyalty leaders grow revenues roughly 2.5 times as fast as their industry peers. He uses the term loyalty leaders for the companies that are at the top of their industry in net promoter score or customer satisfaction ranking for three or more years.

The upshot of a successful VoC program is enhanced customer experience. It then leads to supreme customer satisfaction that keeps up the customer loyalty towards your brand. With that, automatically, the rate of customer acquisition and retention escalates. Finally, increasing the revenue of the organization.

To Wrap Up

The Voice of the Customer program is a must-have to capture the nature of the current system and continuously enhance it for consumers. Correct implementation and monitoring of the VoC program convey clarity in the approach the company needs to follow. From collecting customer feedback to generating customer insights from the new responses received after changes, the VoC program is a continuous cycle that repeatedly enhances operations.

Rechecking and refining the VoC program further ensure the powerful impact it creates by allowing a brand to make the right decisions that enhance the product development process and customer experience to a great extent.