Top businesses that want to take full advantage of their customer experience (CX) know the value of a voice of the customer program. This strategy focuses on monitoring three key customer-facing aspects: what customers expect from the companies where they shop, what their actual experiences are, and whether there are any friction points that could be mitigated.
According to Zendesk, 81 percent of shoppers who have a positive customer experience are likely to buy more products and services from the company.
With data-driven insights and analysis from a voice of the customer program, businesses can optimize their CX to the finest degree—increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value. In sum, it’s an incredibly powerful way to make the most of a business’s everyday operations.
This article will explore the details of what a voice of the customer program looks like, how it works, and the steps involved. Plus, if you’re looking for a partner to help you boost the effectiveness of your business’s CX, you’re in the right place.
An Inside Look at Voice of the Customer
So what is a voice of the customer (VoC) program? To put it simply, it’s the process of gathering and actively listening to patron feedback about a business, its operations, and its reputation. By methodically collecting data, businesses that employ VoC programs can maintain and steadily improve their operations. This attracts new prospects and makes customers, both old and new, more satisfied with the company’s offerings and experiences. And this, in turn, improves the business’s bottom line.
These are the typical overarching goals of top businesses’ VoC programs:
- Gain a better understanding of customer demographics, sentiment, and applications. By getting a clearer picture of who customers are, their impressions, and how they actually use a business’s offerings, more strategic decisions can be made.
- Identify gaps that trigger high churn. Specifically, finding pain and friction points in daily operations can lead a business to make more precise improvements in their CX and offerings.
- Monitor and flag any potential CX crises as they occur. As times change, so do customer expectations. With active and ongoing analysis, companies can adapt to these changing expectations—and address any other CX or public relations issues quickly.
- Improve offerings and the development of products, services, and marketing. When prompted, customers often provide great feedback that can inspire new initiatives to drive business success—on everything from new offerings to more targeted marketing.
- Make operations more efficient. With the above strategies and more, VoC programs also contribute to the streamlining of a business’s model. This applies to both customer-facing and internal processes.
Virtually every top business shares these goals—so it’s clear that VoC programs align well with standard objectives for success.
Turning Insight Into Profit
But how does a voice of the customer program directly contribute to these goals, as well as the ultimate benchmark for success—profitability? In short, VoC programs allow businesses to better strategize improvements using hard data… not mere guesswork. Executives can try new initiatives all day, but without curated customer data, they’re just shooting in the dark.
Let’s put this into practice. Firstly, VoC improves the effectiveness of marketing. With targeted campaigns that fully reflect what makes their key audiences tick—or, more specifically, make a purchase—a business can convert more customers and improve return on investment (ROI) in every outreach category.
VoC programs are also specifically designed to boost customer satisfaction. When the customer journey is easy and friction-free, the products and services are delivering on expectations, and the experience is overwhelmingly positive, customer sentiment rockets to the top. And happy customers are paying customers.
With more strategic marketing and higher satisfaction rates, businesses are better able to not only capture but also retain shoppers, resulting in improved customer lifetime value (CLV). Loyal patrons are less likely to go searching for solutions elsewhere—especially when they can support a business that so clearly understands them and caters to their needs.
Finally, by combining all of these benefits together, businesses can see a steady and notable increase in operational profitability. And that makes VoC a strategy well worth the investment.
A 5-Part Framework for Voice of the Customer Programs
Now that the definition and benefits are clear, the next natural question is, “What does a voice of the customer program look like in action?” While each business has an individual take on VoC, they all employ some iteration of the same five-part framework. Let’s take a closer look step by step.
1 – Set Goals
Naturally, the first step is to outline the specific objectives of the business’s own voice of the customer program. As stated, the overarching goals are the same—to investigate customer perception and gather data for making strategic operational improvements. However, creating more detailed resolutions allows for better verification that the program is achieving measurable results.
For example, a luxury retail company might focus much of their VoC on branding. How does the public see them? Does their quality stand up to customer expectations of their high-end products? What avenues for additional audiences are they not exploring?
Alternatively, consider a specialty restaurant chain looking to bring a new fusion cuisine to the fast-food industry. With every new menu offering, they’ll want to dive into VoC investigations to see how their diners react. Is the product attractive enough to inspire customers to try it? How do they think it tastes compared to other offerings? Would they recommend it to their friends and family?
In the end, VoC programs are designed to reveal the truth about customer perceptions—so it’s good to know what questions need answering before diving in.
2 – Gather Customer Feedback
The next step in voice of the customer programs is getting out there and gathering that data, specifically in terms of customer feedback.
There are a number of powerful methodologies for doing this:
- Customer Surveys: Directly asking customers how they feel is a straightforward and valuable pillar of many VoC programs.
- Customer Interviews and Focus Groups: Whereas surveys are independent and typically anonymous, interviews and focus groups can bring out deeper data points through interactive questions, as well as conversations between group members.
- Online Reviews and Social Media: Listening to the digital buzz about a business is a great way to get insight into customer sentiment, although it tends to skew to extremes.
- Internal Data: Mining information from sales, conversions, and other metrics can also yield customer experience data.
- Mystery Shopping: This is an essential element of any VoC program, as it provides critical insight from expert evaluators.
Of course, top businesses understand the importance of utilizing multiple methods rather than merely relying on one or two. That’s because each comes with its own sets of advantages and limitations. By expanding the data pool, better conclusions can be drawn.
3 – Analyze & Synthesize
Once data starts pouring in, it’s important to take a close look at all the information. Additionally, combining analysis with other critical intelligence allows for drawing better conclusions. For example, mystery shops completed at low-performing locations may not yield the same conclusions as those from high-performing ones. A relatively new franchise might need time to curate a devoted fanbase in that area, while a longstanding one already has a reliable stream of loyal customers.
Drawing conclusions from the voice of the customer analysis is a key step, but it’s not one that any executive can accomplish effectively. Sometimes, it’s valuable to rely on robust, expert evaluation from a trusted third-party agency like IntelliShop. With a deep understanding of CX best practices, they can provide incisive insight for monumental—and profitable—improvements, even on the smallest details.
4 – Make Strategic Adjustments
Obviously, stopping at the conclusion stage won’t yield very much ROI. Once potential opportunities and issues are identified, strategic adjustments must be made. For example, if customers are complaining about a certain product not standing up to their expectations, a business can make strides to improve it. Alternatively, if fans are always raving about a certain type of offering, they can capitalize on that feedback and give them more of what they want.
It’s important to note that not every conclusion from the analysis stage will be worth following up on. Sometimes, it’s better to tackle the low-hanging fruit first—or the more immediate issues. Top-performing businesses have to balance the easy wins with potential long-term results to keep things running and motivate everyone involved. It’s all a matter of determining priority… and then giving those strategies time to take hold.
5 – Continually Monitor Results
After strategic adjustments have been implemented—and they’ve had time to take effect—it’s important to check back in and determine whether or not they are successful. Moreover, monitoring results allows businesses to determine just how successful they are, and whether or not they want to continue.
If a new initiative seemed promising at first but shows only mild success, then it could be time to reconsider. Instant hits can become permanent fixtures. And a dud of a strategy can be cut. Undoubtedly, none of these changes can be intentionally made without the continual analysis of the voice of the customer data.
Need a Partner for Your Voice of the Customer Program?
Although these five steps might seem simple enough, they can add up quickly once put into practice. If your business is looking to make strategic improvements through a robust voice of the customer program, it might be time to consider partnering with IntelliShop.
With over 25 years of experience in CX and a nationwide network of over 1 million skilled mystery shoppers, we can work with you to jumpstart your program, getting your business on the path to greater customer satisfaction—and higher profits. Our leading-edge data analysis also covers a full circle of CX solutions that can make you a superhero at your company.
Learn more about these powerful solutions and become a partner today.
Download our white paper for a deeper dive into how voice of the customer programs work, or book a quick call to see how we can tailor a solution to your business.
Customer Insight That Inspires Success
Implementing a voice of the customer program is a powerful, strategic move for top businesses committed to enhancing customer experience and driving long-term growth. It’s not merely a method for keeping tabs on an audience, but rather a philosophy of continual organizational optimization backed by data-driven insights.
By clearly defining objectives, collecting and analyzing actionable feedback, and making calculated improvements, companies can strengthen customer relationships and boost operational performance. Plus, partnering with a proven leader like IntelliShop ensures a VoC program built on experience, expertise, and a deep understanding of what truly drives customer satisfaction.
The insights are out there, ready to be discovered—and leveraged for future success.
