in this issue
Bringing the Customer Voice Back into Focus
by Execs In The Know
By staying attuned to customer feedback and preferences, businesses can proactively innovate and develop new products or services that meet the evolving needs of their customers.
Are you truly listening to your customers? In the ever-evolving landscape of customer experience (CX) and modern commerce, understanding the “why” behind a customer’s opinions and emotions can make all the difference between success and failure.
In the wake of the pandemic, experiences reign supreme. However, it can be challenging for businesses to ensure they are always meeting the needs and expectations of their customers, across every touchpoint. That’s where the voice of the customer (VoC) comes in.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
At its core, the VoC is a collection of feedback, insights, and opinions from customers about their experiences with a particular brand or business. CX leaders understand the importance of tapping into this valuable resource, as it can help them better understand their customers, identify areas for improvement, and drive business growth.
With a VoC program in place, brands can consolidate feedback from various sources such as customer surveys, social media posts, feedback forms, product pilots and early access programs, CSAT and NPS scores, 1:1 conversations with customer-facing teams and individuals, and support interactions. This ensures that no important input slips through the cracks. VoC programs enable each department to connect, engage, and align on how to meet customer needs throughout the customer journey.
By understanding customer experiences, brands can determine where to improve and provide better customer experiences. In our CX Leaders Trends & Insights: 2022 Corporate Edition report, 86% of CX leaders said their organizations were meeting the needs and expectations of their customers, which is up two points year-over-year and up ten points since 2019.
Whether it’s driving product innovation or bolstering brand awareness, having the right customer context is key to staying ahead of the curve. That’s why it comes as no surprise that an increasing number of organizations are turning to VoC programs to supplement traditional surveys. These programs offer a more comprehensive view of the customer experience. Gartner projects that 60% of organizations will supplement traditional surveys with VoC programs that analyze voice and text exchanges by 2025.
And as competition heats up across industries, businesses that prioritize exceptional customer experiences will undoubtedly come out on top.
Advocating for Customers and Their Experience
By staying attuned to customer feedback and preferences, businesses can proactively innovate and develop new products or services that meet the evolving needs of their customers.
What does true customer closeness look like? One brand that is at the forefront of this movement is woom bikes, which specializes in designing and manufacturing high-quality bicycles for children. The company was founded by two dads in a garage in Vienna, Austria in 2013 and has since expanded to over 25 countries around the world.
With just 1,400 bikes sold in the first year on U.S. soil, that number skyrocketed to more than 52,000 bikes in 2022. And that number just keeps on growing! According to Inc. Magazine, woom bikes is one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.
The brand is doing outstanding work to understand its customers and is agile in leveraging customer feedback for continual improvements to its products and services.
“The customer has been at the center of woom since the beginning,” explains Christopher Hogan, Head of Voice of the Customer and Continuous Improvement at woom bikes USA. “Woom’s founders have always recognized the importance of customer feedback on the brand, the product, and the organization. Today, we prioritize having a strong partnership with leaders within woom, and we show the impact their teams have on the customer experience by quantifying our CX contacts consistent with their terminology and processes.”
Building a Customer-Centric Culture
At the heart of the VoC is a commitment to building a customer-centric culture. By making VoC a central component of their CX strategy, businesses can demonstrate to their customers that they value their feedback and are committed to delivering exceptional experiences. This, in turn, can help build customer loyalty and trust in the brand.
“VoC at woom sits on both the Customer Experience and the Employee Experience teams,” explains Hogan. “We have found that the more CX feedback we share with the organization and use it to drive action, the more our internal teammates share about their experience as employees because they see the same team using the same tools and same processes to gather their feedback and they know we will take action from what they share to improve our overall employee experience.”
The brand has set the bar very high internally. Its target CSAT is >98% and the goal NPS is over 70. At woom, they believe the only way to achieve this is to invest in and prioritize the customer experience. They have built strong relationships with team members from across the business to help best understand their challenges and priorities, and that allows them to connect customer feedback to their expertise and day-to-day operations using a common terminology to maximize the impact they can have on the customer.
“We are in the process of implementing a company-wide process where any team member can submit an issue, topic, or idea. That topic is then assigned ownership to be researched and analyzed by the appropriate team. If necessary, a change or corrective action plan is proposed for approval by representatives across the organization before it is implemented. This drives ownership, visibility, and traceability,” added Hogan.
How can businesses effectively leverage VoC? Here are a few ways.
1. Gather Feedback from Multiple Sources
To get a comprehensive view of the VoC, it’s important to gather feedback from a variety of sources. This can include customer support interactions, surveys, social media monitoring, online reviews, and more.
“Woom places a high value on the input of our CX team. Many times, numbers don’t tell the whole story,” says Hogan. “We allow the opportunity for anecdotal feedback to take the same priority as quantifiable results. This further empowers our CX team members to advocate for our customers and their experience.”
2. Analyze Feedback to Identify Trends and Pain Points
Once feedback has been gathered, it’s crucial to analyze it to identify trends and pain points. This can help brands prioritize areas for improvement and develop effective solutions. For instance, if customers consistently report issues with a particular feature of a product, businesses can use this feedback to develop a plan for addressing the issue.
3. Take Action on Feedback
Ultimately, the most important step in leveraging VoC is acting on feedback. This means developing and implementing solutions to address identified issues and communicating back to customers to let them know how their feedback was incorporated into products or services.
By acting on feedback, businesses can demonstrate to their customers that they are listening and responsive to their needs, which can help build customer loyalty and trust.
“We aim to capture targeted feedback at each point in the customer journey so there is clear ownership and takeaways,” Hogan points out. “As we develop a new survey or metric, we ask Who will own this? What will we do with negative feedback? What will we do with positive feedback? This type of evaluation before we begin ensures both the feedback and the data we collect are powerful and can be actioned upon.”
Benefits Across the Organization
Increase Customer Retention
Customer retention is crucial for businesses to ensure their long-term success. One way to increase customer retention is to take customer feedback seriously. When customers believe in a company, they are more likely to remain loyal and continue doing business with them, rather than seeking out alternatives. Therefore, taking customer feedback into account can have a significant impact on customer retention rates.
Create Customer-Centric Products
By incorporating customer feedback into product development, the likelihood of a product succeeding in the market increases, while costly mistakes can be avoided. Launching a new product that fails to resonate with customers can prove expensive.
To mitigate this risk, brands can consider sending a prototype of the product to a customer focus group before rolling it out nationwide. Feedback from the customers can assist the product team in identifying and fixing bugs and making refinements to the product, thus improving its chances of success upon release to the public.
Provide Customers with Better Support
VoC programs provide businesses with an opportunity to provide customers with better support. In instances where a customer expresses dissatisfaction by sending an angry email or posting a negative comment on social media regarding the support provided by an agent, it is important to not only coach the agent but also contact the customer to acknowledge their concerns and outline the steps being taken to address the issue.
“We have been very intentional to design and implement our systems and processes that provide clear and actionable data and insights with each customer interaction,” says Hogan. “This has been in close partnership with leaders from across the organization to ensure the data we provide in the future is what they need to take action. For example, we quickly share direct customer feedback with our eCommerce and Marketing teams whenever we launch new promotions or programs to optimize the customer experience while also helping to drive revenue.”
Improve Brand Image
The perception of a brand’s image by customers can greatly impact business, as they tend to share their experiences, be they positive or negative. Hence, receiving feedback from them can aid in identifying areas of excellence as well as areas that require improvements. Making positive changes based on such feedback demonstrates a commitment to customers and their satisfaction.
In Conclusion
While many businesses claim to prioritize customer satisfaction, only a handful truly embody this commitment. However, implementing VoC programs can help organizations maintain their customer-centric focus by consistently gathering feedback to inform product, service, and brand development. By quickly capturing customer input and acting on their feedback, brands can effectively keep their customers happy and improve their overall success. Now is the time to bring the customer voice back into focus to drive better insights and outcomes.