Creating Measurable Value from Voice-of-the-Customer Programs
Executive Overview
Everybody’s doing it—or, so they think. Gathering customer feedback has become increasingly commonplace, with over three-quarters of companies now having a customer listening func- tion.1 Yet, less than one in ten describes it as innovative or cutting edge, for good reason.
• Lack of proactivity. Too often the gathering of customer feedback by the company is an attempt to react to a problem that has already occurred (e.g., a decrease in customer retention) rather than an act to prevent its occurrence.
• Lack of practicality. Too often the customer feedback doesn’t drive noticeable changes to customers’ experiences with the company, as a consequence of descriptive analyses that are deficient in delivering proscriptive insight.
• Lack of performance. Too often companies lack the discipline and the capabilities to demonstrate the linkage between the savvy use of customer feedback and an improve- ment of business results.
Capitalizing on customer feedback requires more than the occasional sending of surveys in response to ad hoc business needs. It requires a strategic and ongoing dedication to hearing, listening, understanding and acting upon the voice of the customer (VOC) through a formal program built upon:
• Active listening—an “always on” mechanism providing all customers the opportunity to share their compliments, complaints and comments about their experiences with a company’s products and services
• Pulse monitoring—a reoccurring and systematic means of tracking changes in business outcomes, their leading indicators, and the influential drivers by periodically surveying a statistically representative sample of customers
Listening to customers has always been essential. It hasn’t, however, always been effective. Creating and implementing a thriving VOC program begins with an expanded vision for the role and importance of customer feedback, continues with an awareness of the challenges and best practices for succeeding, and concludes with demonstrated accountability that links the investments to the observed returns. This white paper addresses these three themes, and provides the reader with examples of the principles in practice.
Download full white paper here.