How important is genuine feedback? Its value is directly related to how much you want to improve your services or products. When you are in business, your goal is to provide the best for your clients or customers. If the word ‘best’ seems a bit arbitrary, you certainly want to be the one that potential clients contact when they need a service that aligns with your business. 

How important is the voice of the customer? In a day when news travels as fast as the internet can carry it, feedback is critical. The feedback dynamic doesn’t just involve the customer and the business, but also other customers and other businesses. Whether feedback is positive or negative, it should serve to inform the business to whom it refers. It certainly informs other potential clients, as they will weigh the feedback in their own decision-making process. It will also give other, similar businesses information that they can use to improve. For instance, an electrician that does great work and gets a good review with specifics will let the electrician know that he did a good job. Other customers reading the review are liable to make contact if they need a similar service. Another electrical firm might incorporate some detail in the review to improve its own business methods. VoC is a customer-driven means by which businesses can improve their services and their brand. 

What Is VoC?

Voice of the Customer, or VoC, is a means by which businesses can hear customer feedback. There are many VoC programs, all designed to capture customer data, which businesses can then use to evaluate aspects of the business. VoC programs serve businesses by informing them of customer needs, complaints and the things that they like while at the same time validating customers’ experience by giving them a platform from which to advocate.

What Are VoC Methods?

There are many methods by which to collect VoC data. For a business that intends to give its customers a platform, there are a host of options by which to do so. 

Customer interviews can be dynamic. Two types are target interviews and exploratory interviews. Through target interviews, businesses are attempting to obtain specific information on existing products or services, or get a feel for a potential new product or service. Through exploratory interviews, businesses are attempting to understand the feelings and behaviors of their customers, focusing less on particular products and more on the experience in a holistic sense. Questions could include those about online service, shipping details or on-site customer satisfaction. 

Social media is another method from which VoC data can be obtained. Using text analysis tools, companies can gather social media comments, as well as reviews, where people are going out of their way to comment on some aspect of the business, the service or the product. Whether it’s good or bad, this is where the starkest honesty is liable to be found. 

Live chat and customer support are techniques that are employed on scores of business websites. You’ll recognize them when a box pops up encouraging you to engage with a live representative of the company. For users who don’t want to exercise this option, they can minimize the box. For those who do have questions or comments, they are suddenly getting one on one attention from a company that they are considering giving their money to. The number of live operators that should be engaged depends on the size and success of the company.

Website behavior can be a powerful tool for understanding the customer experience. Websites have built-in tools that are able to collect and quantify data that companies can then rely on to make choices.

Final Thoughts

The voice of your customer is pretty important. Hearing what it is telling you and recognizing how to best fold that feedback into your business is a grass-roots method by which to improve, ensure future sales and develop the relationship that you have with your customer base.