Even the most robust Voice of the Customer programs often lack the sophistication needed to consolidate and analyze customer input for a cohesive company-wide view. Worse yet, we see that most companies build programs that fail to apply this feedback as the impetus for transformation.
I see this changing rapidly over the next 1-2 years. To do so, organizations will be:
- Putting all customer data into one place. There are many powerful platforms that can do this well. The entire organization needs to understand what the benefits of this are. Collect everything you can get your hands on before deciding what you think is useful.
- Picking the data that will have the greatest impact. Look at how your organization assesses operational, financial, and strategic performance—and relate your customer strategy and customer data to that. Operationalize the collection and rationalization of this data.
- Applying analytics to the new dataset and creating dashboards. Many excellent business intelligence tools can be used for this. The hardest part is finding scarce BI resources that have mastered the art of sifting through the noise to get to the signal.
- Combining the anecdotes that we all have about successful and not-so-successful customers with the hard data. Tell stories that are relevant and impactful to every facet of the organization. The single most important part of our job as CX professionals is storytelling. Rethink your role and how you will do that.
- Using these stories, along with solid project management and change management, to create real change. There’s no transformation like customer-driven transformation. And guess who is in the driver’s seat to propel this forward. We are.
VOC is one tool in the customer strategy leader’s toolkit, but it might just be the most important one—if we use it properly. Don’t fall into the “built it and they will come” trap. It’s entirely up to us to wield customer feedback in the right way to improve customer outcomes, customer experience, and our own organization’s performance.
I believe the future is on our side. Big changes are afoot—and all of us can help build momentum.
