Voice of the customer (VoC)

Voice of the customer (VoC)?

Voice of the customer (VoC) is a collection of inputs by customers regarding needs, wants, and expectations regarding a company's products and services.

Voice of the customer analysis is conducted by combing through multiple channels where the target customers are present and actively listens to customer feedback to either improve or introduce new products and services.

Why is the voice of the customer research important?

To stay ahead of the curve, customer centric organizations constantly innovate and understand the needs of its target audience. It’s important to place customers at the heart of product development and actively listen to their needs and grievances. This makes the voice of the customer research even more relevant, especially in today’s rapidly changing times.

Here’s why voice of the customer is integral to any contact center:

1. Testing waters:
   It’s always a risk bringing new services or revamping company processes. Deploying the voice of the customer tools drives holistic, objective and data oriented decisions, mitigating risks early on.
   

2. Improving services:
   Customer feedback is one of the best methods of finding focus areas to improve services. Based on data from the voice of the customer analysis, new features can be added to existing services.
   

3. Increasing customer retention:
   Driving customer loyalty is the fastest way to retain customers. The easiest process is to proactively listen to customer calls and implement their suggestions. The customer feels heard, further cementing their trust in the brand.
   

4. Preventing crisis:
   Voice of the customer research allows a company to think ahead and plan a roadmap that’s aligned with customer interests. In this age of technological advancements, markets are highly volatile, and analyzing customer sentiment is the biggest factor that can help an organization stay ahead of the curve, preventing their services from becoming obsolete.

How to capture voice of the customer data?

1. Focus groups: A focus group brings demographically similar people to analyze reactions to new products and services.
   
   
2. Interviews and surveys: In scenarios where subjective opinions are important, interviews provide a direct and solicited feedback on varied topics. These are conducted with select groups that are either chosen carefully or randomized.
   
   
3. Online data aggregation: Online discussions on public forums serve as ready made data pools to aggregate the voice of the customers. From social media to niche web forums, indirect and unsolicited feedback is always available. However, because it’s anecdotal data, it requires more organization.
   
   
4. Review inbound customer interactions:
   Customer interactions across omnichannel support is a treasure trove of valuable feedback, and readily available with contact centers. It can be accurately analyzed using contact center AI that auto-transcribes calls and easily identifies certain keywords to proactively find customer expectations.