What is Voice of Customer (VoC)?

In recent years, the term Voice of the Customer has been trending online. But do we know what the phrase means and how the voice is captured?

In today’s market, customer needs and demands are always changing. And thanks to digitization, customer expectations are also higher than they were a decade ago. Companies and brands are taking the initiative to invest in voice of the customer tools and programs to help them keep up with these high expectations.

So, what is Voice of Customer (VoC)? To understand what VoC is, its purpose, and its importance to businesses today, keep reading this article.

What Is Voice of Customer (VoC)?

Voice of Customer is a phrase that marketers and brands use to designate the process of mapping customer preferences, expectations, and aversions. It is also instrumental in capturing customer experience with your brand. This process employs quantitative and qualitative analysis and research methods to develop detailed information about customer needs and wants.

The voice of customer process involves collecting feedback and testimonies about your customers’ experiences after interacting with your brand or using your products and services.

How Do You Capture the VoC?

Capturing VoC constitutes gathering information about your customers from surveys, focus groups, or customer feedback analysis. All these information-gathering methods rely on direct and indirect contact with your customers. With technological advancements, brands are taking advantage of online surveys to gather information on a much larger scale than before.

Irrespective of your industry, it will cost you 5- 25X more to get a new customer than retain those you have. You can also use the voice of customer analytics tools to capture and analyze the data. Use the below techniques to help you capture VoC:

1. Conduct Customer Interviews

This is among the oldest techniques of capturing VoC. It helps you interact with customers and understand their opinion about your brand and the services or products you offer. This is also the best way to understand the performance measures and attributes of your services and products.

You can choose to conduct customer interviews in groups. Choose people with some common qualities and attributes. You can do this digitally, in-person, or over the phone.

Conducting in-person interviews is also the best way to build a relationship with your customers. However, it is one of the most expensive and time-consuming data-collection methods.

2. Customer Surveys

Conducting on-site client surveys is also a great way to collect information. These surveys bring to your attention any issues faced by customers. This allows you to address the problems and solve customer challenges.

However, if you ask the wrong questions, the client’s answers may not be very reliable. Ensure you design your survey questions to collect relevant information for your end-goal.

3. Live Chat With Clients

It’s estimated that over 40% of customers prefer shopping on websites with a live chat feature. This is the best way of collecting data and leaving your customer satisfied.

You can use live chat to collect customer complaints, resolve issues, and understand their perspective. You can follow up a live chat with an online survey for all visitors to your website.

4. Using Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook give you a unique opportunity to interact with your customers. This can be a great way to collect information that will help you understand your customer’s voice. To do this, you can join on-going conversations, post things that trigger a conversation, or quietly collect relevant info from on-going engagements.

The biggest advantage of social media is that it allows you to communicate with your customers directly.

5. Recording Customer Calls

Any recorded information will help you leverage historical data. Recording customer calls gives you a unique opportunity to understand how their experience with your products or services was. Most clients often call businesses when they need help or to complain about unmet expectations.

Although it takes time to record and sort through customer calls, this is one of the best ways to collect real user experience.

Why Is VoC So Important for Businesses?

Customers are the backbone of your business. They are the reason why you exist; to serve them. Improving your customer experience is the biggest way to gain a competitive advantage over your competition.

When you understand your customers’ behavior and needs, you will be one step closer to making customer-aligned decisions. Below are the benefits of VoC to businesses:

1. Improves Customer Experience

Launching the voice of customer campaigns and programs will help you retain customers. This is done through understanding your customer needs and improving your service delivery methods to enhance their satisfaction. It also promotes customer retention.

Improving user experience on your website is one of the best ways to make use of VoC and retain your customers, according to decibel.com.

2. It Helps You Manage Your Brand

Knowing what a customer thinks about your brand will help you improve certain aspects of the brand to maintain a positive reputation. Capturing the customer’s vice directly will likely improve their general interaction with your brand. It shows that someone cares.

3. Increases Your Revenue

With improved customer experience comes more purchases. Your customers will refer you to your competitor. They can also refer their family and friends to your company. Capturing the customer’s voice will also increase your chances of attracting new customers.

4. It Gives You a Competitive Advantage

Every day, your customer’s expectations are always changing. Thanks to digitization, customers now have platforms that help them compare brands from all over the world. They also have access to other customer experiences through testimonials, reviews, and social media posts.

Therefore, if you’re keen to listen to your customers, they will pinpoint what you need to improve in your products and how they prefer being served by your employees. Implementing these changes will give you a competitive advantage.

Now, Do You Understand What Is Voice of Customer?

What is voice of customer? Do you now have a better understanding of what VoC is and how it can benefit your business?

Customer satisfaction is the biggest aspect of business success today. Implementing a voice of customer program is the best way to collect feedback and improve your business performance.

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