Customers today are more demanding than ever. Moreover, the wishes of the customer (group) and each other can differ greatly. That is why more and more companies are now investing in it Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs. They can be very valuable. But make sure you listen to the right feedback. Otherwise you can totally miss the mark!
What is VoC?
The term Voice of the Customer (VoC) describes the feedback from customers about their experiences and expectations of products or services. This is very valuable for product development, product improvements and of course your marketing or sales. By better understanding the critical requirements of (important) customers, you can better tailor products, services or campaigns to them and work purposefully on a good klanttevredenheid en customer experience (CX). In addition to VoC, other terms are also used, such as Customer Orientation or Customer Needs Mapping (more on this later).
Unknown customer annoyances
Companies and the people who work there often think they know their customers. But often that turns out to be a mistake. If you ask carefully, you will soon find out. Then they turn out not to be aware of major frustrations or minor annoyances of customers. And even small annoyances can become a big problem if you don't know them. Just think of those little moments when you are a customer yourself and run into minor annoyances. For example, if you cannot even change your new e-mail address or request a new password at a webshop (it still exists, even with very large well-known chains!). In those cases, companies can immediately lose customers forever.
VoC indispensable for customer-oriented organization
VoC programs have become increasingly important to the core strategy of companies and organizations in recent years. They want to be able to meet or exceed customer expectations. After all, that is the core of a customer-oriented organization: who is your customer and what does he (or she) expect? And who are those customers who purchase specific products or services? What are their specific features? What do they find important?
Research on the VoC
How can you clarify the real customer wishes? That can be done in different ways. Traditionally, this often happened with customer interviews (and still does). Fortunately, in this online era, many handy measuring methods have been added. Based on online search behaviour, live chats, other customer contacts or by e-mail, you can ask the right questions at the right time quite easily and very purposefully.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is also a valuable measuring instrument for the VoC, due to the strong focus on customer loyalty and the longer term. But other measurement methods can also come in handy. At GrowPromoter we help customers with this with a special VoC template to ask the right questions online. And of course with advice on this. Because asking the right questions, to the right people, at the right time is crucial to harvesting truly valuable insights about customers.
Watch for unusable feedback
Those who don't listen carefully to customers - for example by measuring incorrectly - can also miss the point completely. Then you get incorrect feedback and you 'understand' the voice of your customers completely wrong. In addition to incorrect feedback, you can also harvest 'unusable' feedback. In practice, we see, for example, that customers:
• 'Want quicker answers to questions.'
• 'Want certainty about delivery on the agreed date.'
• Want to be able to place an order more easily.'
But this feedback is not concrete enough to translate into valuable actions. With a better question or one smart follow-up question you can often make a big difference. Fortunately, there are also many good ones voorbeelden van VoC onderzoek.
Keep measuring
If you want to conduct VoC research, you should continue to measure. Such an investigation is not a one-off process. Customers and their wishes are constantly changing. Fortunately, measuring online can be done relatively easily and very easily. Customer Journey Mapping may be valuable to go through the customer process of customers through their eyes. In such a session it becomes clear when there are customer contacts, what valuable measurement moments are and how the customer experiences your work processes.
To continue measuring VoC, NPS is also valuable. Especially because it is a simple and powerful instrument to (in principle) measure customer satisfaction with just one question and to get an indication of your growth potential. That is easy to repeat and monitor. Take a good look at the balance between your 'detractors' (dissatisfied customers) and your 'promoters', who are extremely satisfied.
