What Is a Voice of the Customer Study?

For those interested in bettering the customer experience, you may be hearing the term “Voice of the Customer” being tossed around - but what does it mean? 

The answer is straightforward, a voice of the customer study is one where you engage your customers to ask for their feedback, aka their voice, about how you are doing. 

Typically, a VOC study uses a series of quantitative questions to assess performance, be it satisfaction questions (Csat) or Net Promoter Score (NPS) or both.  Then. some go beyond to capture key insights that support the ratings 

Methods for Capturing your Customer’s Voice 

The good news is there are many ways to engage your customers to capture their feedback. For many, the go-to method has been online surveys. But that method has become horribly overused. (When was the last time you completed an in-line survey? I’ll bet it was a long time.) 

For those with busy lives, survey fatigue has set in.  People are no longer taking the time to respond to on-line surveys.  This is resulting in very low participation rates. And feedback that isn’t necessarily representative of the broader population.   

Fortunately for B2B organizations, there are other methods that are effective and cost affordable.  Instead of surveys, organize a process to interview your customers in-person or via Zoom/Teams. This is a much more personal approach that customers are typically willing to support. 

Or consider advisory boards and/or focus groups to collect customer feedback.  They require a bit more effort to organize but often they’re worth the effort. 

Why these other methods? Aside from avoiding wasting time creating a survey that no one completes, you will capture meaningful feedback. That’s key if you want to take action to improve your business.  

Remember: scores and ratings just assess performance.  They dont guide you to make improvements.  Its the actual feedback and suggestions that pave the way to make changes to your business.  

How Do I Get Started with a Voice of the Customer Engagement

Generally the first step in running a voice of the customer study is identifying your goal -what are you hoping to learn from the study? This will determine the best method to capture feedback and how many customers you need to hear from.

Perhaps your goal is assessing various features for a new product. Or maybe it’s looking to enhance a piece of software you introduced a few years back.

In that case, a focus group or advisory board might be the best option.  Those choices are great for brainstorming solutions.

Alternatively, maybe your goal is capturing views of how your company performs or investigating how the competition serves its customers.  In that case, one on one interviews are the best course of action.

Once you’ve decided on a method to capture feedback, then you need to decide to do-it-yourself or use a third party.   That decision comes down to one of time, money and expertise. 

While you might lean toward doing the work yourself, beware there’s often more to it than meets the eye.  Formulating thoughtful questions, deciding on the right candidate pool, and conducting the actual interviews is greatly benefitted by those with some prior experience.   

Yes, it costs more but in the end you’ll be happy you made the investment.

Next time, we’ll give tips and suggestions for evaluating third party providers of VOC services. 

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To learn more about Voice of the Customer engagements, how they can help your organization, and trends you’ll want to know when engaging in one, visit our Insights page.