What is the voice of the customer?

To put it plain and simple, the voice of the customer, also known as VoC, is a process of collecting customer feedback about their experiences, preferences, and expectations in relation to a product or service. The term first came about in 1993 in an MIT Marketing Science report. It’s an effective way of learning what consumers want versus what you are delivering.

How does the VoC process work?

Implementing and leveraging a voice of the customer program can add crucial value to your organization, but what does the process look like?

1. The first part of a VoC program is to collect your customer feedback. This can be done in many ways but it’s not always simple! Several organizations are challenged with disparate systems and explosion of data coming from a variety of channels and touchpoints including, email, mobile app data, customer service systems, surveys, etc.

2. Next, a brand wants to analyze that data, identify actionable insights, and share it across the entire organization. While siloed information can make it difficult to recognize trends, expectations, and predictions – VoC platforms can be very useful to compile that feedback and break it down into a metric-based report.

3. Finally, an organization wants to take those insights and use them to make data-driven decisions. By utilizing this critical information, companies can better identify customer needs to keep a competitive edge, build brand loyalty, and increase customer engagement. This can lead to meaningful change on a consumer and business level.

What does the future hold for VoC programs?

Gartner predicts that by 2025, “60% of organizations with voice of the customer programs will supplement traditional surveys by analyzing voice and text interactions with customers.”

While many organizations continue to deploy traditional surveys, several customer experience (CX) leaders believe these surveys don’t offer as much value as other methods. A research study commissioned by Gartner reveals, 67% of marketing organizations struggle to keep up with changing customer needs. However, VoC collection, like natural language processing (NLP), can better understand and gather customer sentiment and context from a variety of sources such as emails, SMS, and social media messages. This type of technology is expected to bring the biggest benefits to business in the years ahead.

What should CX leaders prioritize moving forward?

There is no ignoring the voice of the customer to stay competitive in the current climate. Customer needs and expectations continue to rapidly change. To keep up, CX leaders need to find new and innovative ways to capture customer feedback and implement change to keep them coming back to the brand time and time again. While it is not an easy feat, leading organizations are leveraging speech and text analytics to improve the overall customer experience. Many businesses are also succeeding due to technologies such as, Conversational AI and chatbots to proactively

reach consumers on the channel of their choice in the moments that matter. GDS Group hosts hundreds of closed-door roundtable discussions on these new and innovative technologies that are setting brands apart from the competition. So, if you want to remain relevant, your organization needs to develop strategies on how to better collect, understand, and distribute customer insights across the organization. What has worked for companies GDS speaks with daily? Accelerating your digital transformation initiatives.