Voice of Customer (VOC) is:
“a process used to capture the requirements/feedback from the customer (internal or external) to provide the customers with the best in class service/product quality. This process is all about being proactive and constantly innovative to capture the changing requirements of the customers with time.” (iSixSigma, 2015)
The aim of a VOC program is to create a customer feedback loop, giving the organisation customer data to use in many areas of the business.
As Davey (2013) suggests, a VOC strategy should touch customers at a variety of points in their customer experience. The strategy and insights gained should then be used to drive change across the organisation, rather than keeping feedback localised in one area.
An example where a large company has utilised a VOC strategy to improve the customer experience belongs to Starbucks, the coffee chain (Bains, 2010). Starbucks invited comments to improve the customer experience within their restaurants, and set up a webpage where customers could log and leave their comments. Perhaps ironically, the main issue customers reported was the complex nature of the process required to log-in. As a response, Starbucks turned on “simplified wi-fi” in over 7,000 stores in the US.
As a stand-alone intervention, this would not require comment, however Starbucks’ commitment to actioning customer feedback, according to Bains, shows the feedback loop of a VOC approach in action.
However, Starbucks invited the feedback, and created a safe and private domain for comments to be fielded. In contrast, it has been suggested that 70% of large companies have ignored complaints on social media about their products or services (Baer, 2015).
For example, British Airways have incurred negative publicity after lack of response and caring about Twitter interactions (Burke, 2014)
These tweets were seen by over 80,000 users, showing that timeliness is king in voice of customer.
Baer, J. (2015) ‘70% of Customers Ignore Customer Complaints on Twitter’, Convince and Convert, [Online] Available at: <http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/70-of-companies-ignore-customer-complaints-on-twitter/> [Accessed 27th April, 2015]
Burke, S. (2014) ‘Examples of the good the bad and the ugly of customer service on social media’, Spokal, [Online] Available at: <http://www.getspokal.com/examples-of-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-of-customer-service-on-social-media/> [Accessed 27th April, 2015]
Davey, N (2013) ‘Listen up: how to build a voice of the customer strategy’ My Customer, [Online] Available at: <http://www.mycustomer.com/feature/experience/listen-how-build-voice-customer-strategy/164752> [Accessed 27th April, 2015]
