Only 17% organizations prioritize making customer feedback data available across the firm.
Voice of Customer (VoC) is an essential part of a customer experience program. It comprises gathering and understanding customer feedback so that you can improve your offerings and customer experience. Organizations have been using customer feedback as part of their customer service and business growth strategies. However, VoC changes the focus from gathering collective data to individual feedback. It also involves presenting proof to customers that their feedback has been incorporated into your product and service offerings.
While VoC has become a crucial part of a company’s customer experience (CX) program, only a few companies act upon the data they collect. According to studies, most customers who share complaints about poor customer service feel that their complaints are ignored. Even many businesses are not confident that customer feedback is reaching the right business units (BUs). According to The Global State of Customer Experience 2020 reportOpens a new window , about 72% of the respondents felt that customer feedback insights hardly or never reached the relevant business units.
Recently, Alchemer commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate CX insights and data use at organizations. The studyOpens a new window revealed the following key findings.
Also read: 4 Voice of Customer (VoC) programs to improve Customer Experience (CX) Innovation
1. Organizations’ CX Program Is Not Set Up for Success
The study found that even firms that realize the importance of CX have inarticulate processes, definitions, and executions for their strategies. These factors prevent them from reaching and exceeding CX goals. The fragility of the CX ecosystem boils down to three fundamental issues:
- Lack of clear strategy
- Failure to define customer experience as a value driver it really is, and
- Inability to respond to customer problems
The study also found that most companies’ current CX programs are in a bad situation. This is primarily due to:
- CX being abandoned as a priority: 91% of the respondents said that the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in their CX plans. The most common effects included abandoned priorities (46%) and relocated/suspended budgets (36%).
- Organizations not focusing on the most beneficial initiatives: Companies emphasize CX and insights improvements over a year. However, their least priority initiatives around reducing cost and improving ROI of the programs, which can enhance buy-in, show a tendency to leave money on the table.
- Low-maturity operations: Organizations are using siloed workflows and outdated technologies. While 57% of organizations said their CX and marketing teams work collaboratively, customer insights are not usually shared throughout the business.
Also read: How Voice of Customer (VoC) data helps improve enterprise efficiency
2. CX Program Fails in Three Key Areas
The study found that the CX programs in most companies fail in three key areas:
- Low-quality data along the VoC data collection lifecycle: The best way to fit the right data into the right place at the right time is to integrate VoC data into business processes. The meaning of this data should further be communicated so each department can use these findings to their advantage. However, 82% reported that their organizations lack a fully embedded VoC program. This means very few integrate customer feedback into their business. In fact, only 19% said that VoC is well-embedded in how their company runs. Automation can improve the ability to collect, aggregate, analyze, and act on data. However, only 11% and 6%, respectively, have fully automated analysis and communication processes for analyzing and acting on data.
- The ability/inability to embed feedback throughout the organization: Only 22% reported that their firm’s CX model is enterprise wide. This leads to organizations being unable to act on and prioritize data consistently. Further, only 17% of the organizations prioritize making data available across the firm.
Overall unclear processes that do not allow CX to thrive: Organizations are uncertain when it comes to determining what to do with the collected data. Even though they spend resources to build an effective strategy, they cannot see the returns they expect due to the inability to interpret the results and act.
Because of their data challenges, 96% of the companies experienced adverse business outcomes.
3. Organizations Must Integrate Their Processes To Ensure Future Success
The study showed that firms have started to improve embedded insights. They are doing this by increasing budgets, improving technologies, formalizing frameworks, and hiring additional talent to fill the gaps. About 44% of the respondents said they are making new tech investments, while 38% said they are increasing CX budgets. 36% said they are establishing formal CX measurement frameworks, and 33% said they are hiring new talent.
Having said that, companies should be strategic in taking the next steps. Evaluating the following steps, selecting functionalities and partners to strengthen areas they fall short, and ensuring budgets, technologies, and frameworks work together are necessary for success.
Organizations are looking for key functionalities from their solutions to provide a better VoC experience. A few key factors they are looking at include solutions that are easy to use, have a fast time-to-productivity and are easy to adapt to changing needs. This flexibility is crucial as decision-makers can spend more time on improving their processes than how to get the technology to work.
Also read: How Voice of Customer (VoC) helps your Business Continuity Plan
To Conclude
According to the study, businesses are undoubtedly focusing on improving their VoC and CX programs over the next 12 months. However, improving the VoC efforts requires a focus on people, data, and technology. Further, it requires CX professionals to identify what is working and what is not. Firms looking to improve their VoC efforts and inspire action should ensure they have the right CX metrics in place, prioritize closing the insights-to-action gap, and embrace a communication plan. They should also be agile in their approach to meet evolving program needs.
Ultimately, an effective and sustainable CX program is prioritized, methodically planned, cohesively built into an organization’s strategy, and tactically executed.
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