Leveraging the Voice of Customer To Drive CX: Gartner Shares New Insights

Gartner shares new insights on using VoC solutions to improve CX.

Customers are constantly communicating their perspectives to brands on their own accord through a variety of mediums, from surveys and email to social media and website browsing patterns. Surprisingly, according to recent HubSpot research based on 1,000 customer service leaders, 42% of companies do not listen to their customers. If brands are not listening to the customer, how can they claim to “put the customer first”?

Also read: What is ‘Voice of Customer’ Data and How can AI Improve its Value? Definition, Key Components and AI-Powered VoC Techniques

Instead of asking customers to give up their time and effort to communicate their feedback, marketers must think about what their behavior and interactions are already telling them. By focusing on digital body language – the psychology of customers at various digital touchpoints – marketers can position themselves in a far better way to understand customers. This provides the opportunity to change their approach and provide personalized CX. Like in real life, if a customer is showing body language that signals frustration, marketers must not ignore this and react as if they were showing positive body language. Reading customer signals is all about taking this idea and mirroring it in the digital domain.

How To Collect the Voice of the Customer (VoC) From Diverse Sources

We can mine customer signals for hugely relevant insights, such as customer sentiment, which will reveal detractors that can be rescued. It will also enable the capability to find prospective customers through analysis of future customer spending habits and their existing communications.

According to research from the U.S. management consultant organization, Bain & Company, it is five times more expensive to gain customers than retain existing customers. The value of focusing on customer retention is clear, and the first step in keeping customers is to meet their needs. The only way to know what their needs are is to be plugged into the voice of your customer and have a 360° view of their journey.

Also read: How Can Marketers Ace Customer Experience Transformation? Merkle Shares New Insights

Instead of relying solely on feedback surveys and transactional feedback as one source of customer data, which many companies do, devote more resources to macro-level analysis from multiple data sources. At the micro-level, you can analyze individual customer signals and tag feedback into categories, but you can take this a step further. Macro analysis entails finding patterns and data that lead to the knowledge you did not know already. By finding data that contradicts what you think you know, or data that confirms your assumptions, you can make true CX change.

However, according to Gartner, the VoC data that organizations collect is often disparate and disorganized, making it challenging to use effectively. Organizations that use VoC platforms, too, find it challenging to gather and operationalize customer feedback due to the platform’s misaligned implementation. Hence, companies looking at making informed decisions on CX improvements and investments should implement a cohesive VoC strategy.

In its latest thinking in VoCOpens a new window , Gartner suggests that marketers take these six steps to deploy a VoC solution to improve CX:

• Define the top use case.
• Validate journey map and define key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Define feedback collection methods.
• Implement VoC Output Integrations.
• Deploy and support the VoC solution.
• Leverage customer feedback.

“To establish a better understanding of customer needs and perspectives, service organizations need a cohesive VoC strategy. This strategy focuses on generating insights for CX initiatives that address the most relevant customer issues,” said Deb Alvord. “A well-conceived VoC strategy can produce a VoC program that improves the value and use of customer data while reducing risks and delivering better CX outcomes.”

Conclusion

Customer experience is no longer a one-way conversation. Survey and email feedback fatigue are real, so brands should strive to understand the VoC and actively listen to the signals that are being sent to them every day to better capture customer expectations.

Also read: Fulfillment Is the Biggest Barrier To Exceptional Customer Experiences in 2020: New Data Reveals

Every single customer interaction with a brand can be mined for data to provide more color to the VoC. There are many avenues in which brands can read customer signals, including direct communications such as social media, live chat conversations, and website browsing activity.

To get the best value from this feedback, it is vital that VoC data is democratized to the relevant departments to empower the workforce. This structure will provide them with the means to solve customer complaints as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Additionally, the insight captured from VoC programs will help uncover strategic insights by cutting through the noise and providing the data you need to put the customer at the heart of the organization. With VoC, brands can better align their products and services to the customer’s needs, fostering increased brand loyalty.