Creating a positive and consistent customer experience across multiple channels is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today, and a solid Voice of the Customer program is core to meeting this challenge. Building such a program, however, is far from simple and failure to do it well will result in “just another customer survey”.
For dedicated CEM professionals, a VoC program is simply the “right thing to do”. However, while some organizations just “get” it, for many, a lot of work is required to secure the financial and operational investment necessary to build a true VoC program. There is—quite reasonably—a call to demonstrate Return on Investment.
https://www.confirmit.com/Resources/Voice-of-the-Customer/Voice-of-the-Customer-5-Steps-to-Success/
Many B2B organisations are still struggling with the changing balance of power in an age where buyers are more vocal and have the ability to make informed purchase decisions. Customer empowerment has impacted businesses of all sizes, and brand loyalty is always in the balance.
However, leading organisations are finding ways to turn customer empowerment into a competitive advantage. They are gathering and organising voice of customer (VoC) data from multiple sources to build a clear picture of buyer sentiment, intent and requirements. But they are not simply hoarding this data. They are actively using it to leverage insights then devise cohesive sales and marketing strategies aligned with customer needs to deliver better business performance.
Customer expectations change rapidly, and so must the activities used to address them. It’s not easy to keep pace, but with a measured approach it can be achieved. Gathering, analysing and acting on VoC data can underpin a dynamic cycle where buyer actions are managed intelligently to drive tangible, long term business success.
https://www.b2bmarketing.net/en/resources/blog/how-put-voice-customer-work/
One of the biggest challenge businesses face in providing better customer service is truly understanding their customers. Figuring out why customers are reaching out and what drives their decisions, behavior, and opinions of your brand are crucial to long-term success. To create a positive customer experience, not just before and during the sale, but after the sale as well, you need to listen to your customer during every conversation.
Speech Analytics lets you harness the power of voice of the customer insights by enabling you to automate the monitoring, categorization, tagging and scoring of all interactions with customers – whether they happen on the phone, email, chat or social. Doing so can give you a deeper understanding of why customers reach out, what frustrations they are experiencing and what they need from you.
These articles outlines how speech analytics provides voice of the customer insights to improve customer service.
https://callminer.com/blog/voice-of-the-customer-analytics-the-power-of-voc-insights-in-improving-service/
Is customer service part of the customer experience? Or is customer experience what happens when someone receives customer service? Are they the same thing?
The terms “customer service” and “customer experience” are often confused or used interchangeably. They’re not the same thing, but they are related.
The difference between customer service and customer experience is that while customer service is one piece of the puzzle — focused on human interaction and directly supporting customers — customer experience is the sum of the entire customer journey with your business.
Let’s take a look at customer service vs. customer experience in more detail.
https://www.helpscout.net/blog/customer-service-vs-customer-experience/
Whether new to CX or looking to expand your current knowledge, it is important to learn about what, when, and how to develop personas so that you can serve your customers better. Knowing what personas are NOT is equally important to create desired outcomes versus hinder them.
http://customerthink.com/customer-personaswhats-all-the-hype/
According to Forbes magazine, globally it is reported that companies across different sectors lose around 62 Billion due to poor customer experience. With a statistic like this, one might think that customer service is getting worse, when in fact it is getting better. The reason behind this is that the best companies are setting the bar higher.
Research done globally by Ipsos has shown that expectations have become more liquid, meaning that they are increasingly influenced by a much wider body of experiences across a variety of sectors. Here it could be argued that the increasing digitization makes it easier for a customer to compare, thus it’s possible that the service provided by Amazon’s One click ordering affects the way consumers expect to deal with their bank, utility provider or local restaurant.
http://www.venturemagazine.me/2018/07/customer-experience-excellence-ipsos/
Your service desk customers typically have the last word about the services you provide, like it or not. There’s a bit of the old adage here – “the customer is always right.” While that thinking has a long legacy in the business world, there is a bit of movement to such philosophies like “the employee is always right” that reflects the sentiment that without properly empowered employees customers can’t be properly serves. Nevertheless, in the organisations where service desk customers typically have the last word, it is increasingly important that you track how they feel about their interactions with you. But how do you actually measure how well your service department resonates with the user base?
This is no easy task, though. Quality customer experience is as important as it is difficult. Satisfaction among your customers depends on how you’ve helped to solve their issues rather than what you did to solve it. In other words, your customers don’t want to know what it’s the sausage, they just want the sausage.
Quantitatively measuring that may otherwise be defined as qualitative can be a bit tricky, but there’s no reason to panic. There are ways forward.
https://www.itproportal.com/features/tracking-customer-experience-with-key-performance-indicators/
When you think of Voice of Customer (VOC) Feedback, it’s exactly what it sounds like.
Voice of Customer Feedback is direct and clear feedback on your product or service straight from the mouth of the consumer/customer.
Whether you achieve this data through market research, surveys, or focus groups, it will provide you a competitive stance on your product or services, or what deficiencies your product or service has in the current market.
https://ledgeviewpartners.com/blog/how-to-use-voice-of-customer-voc-feedback-to-improve-your-customer-service-team/
Voice of the customer data is one of the easiest, most timely, cost-effective and well-rounded data you can get. Surveys are done mostly online and are simple to create, analyze and reference. Programs like SurveyMonkey are fast, intuitive and easy platforms to use. You may have seen ours. SBJ sends surveys a couple of times a year and we have utilized the voice of our reader to relaunch our print edition, improve our website experience and shape our events. Our customers’ feedback has been an invaluable resource. You will continue to see SBJ respond to your feedback with action toward improvement.
http://sbj.net/stories/opinion-how-to-put-data-into-your-playbook,59676/
For customers, conversations with brands are never more than a click away. Social media is opening up more direct channels for communication between brands and consumers than ever before. And savvy brands know to use platforms like Facebook and Instagram as stronger touchpoints to engage consumers. You might have seen this play out with airline brand representatives alleviating concerns with disgruntled flyers online in real-time, or famous fast food brands exchanging cheeky tweets with critics. While social media is a powerful communication tool, it doesn’t replace a Voice of the Customer (VoC) solution when it comes to gaining actionable customer feedback. Without a solid VoC strategy in place, social media can easily become a place where your brand’s dirty laundry is aired via public conversations, rather than a real driver of positive change.
Here’s how you can use a strong VoC strategy to work in tandem with social to better understand how customers feel about your brand:
https://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/social-media-cant-be-only-voc-strategy/