What is it? Voice of the Customer (VoC) is a research method that’s used to collect customer feedback. It’s important for all marketing leaders to design a VoC program to capture how their customers (and users) feel about their brands, website, app(s), product(s), or service(s). VoC research gives you valuable insights that can help you create a stronger customer experience and loyalty.
Customers want to be heard. They want to know that companies care… in a genuine and sincere way. VoC research has been a staple in the marketing and brand strategy process since the early 1990’s.
The definition of VoC originated with a 1993 paper by Griffin and Hauser, who define VoC as:
“A complete set of customer wants and needs; expressed in the customer’s own language; organized the way the customer thinks about, uses and interacts with the product and service; and prioritized by the customer in terms of both importance and performance”.
If that definition doesn’t convince you why a VoC program can move the revenue needle up, then I invite you to think creatively about it. Of course, we’ve all received those “very generic” surveys from companies asking us to giveaway our valuable time to answer a “short survey”. How selfish?
For the savvy marketer, this is an opportunity… and opportunity to be different… and memorable… and loved by your customers. This tidbit encourages you to create a “VoC Program”… program suggest something more than a generic survey.
What do I mean by a VoC program
Imagine if you made VoC research fun for your customers. Imagine if you invested in your customers, and gave away a BIG grand prize incentives when your customers answer your “short survey”, instead of an Amazon gift card to the lucky one. Imagine if you built a customer community (that’s not a Facebook group) and brought your customers together in a virtual focus group of ideation and experience sharing.
Really and truly, for the innovative and savvy marketer… you have an opportunity to use VoC to build your brand’s affinity and loyalty, while collecting valuable insights to differentiate from your competitors and grow revenue.
Here are some VoC articles I have bookmarked:
➜ This Hubspot Blog Post entitled, “12 Voice of the Customer Methodologies To Generate a Gold Mine of Customer Feedback” is a comprehensive article written by Ruchika Sharma.
➜ CXL Blog Post entitled, “Use Voice-of-Customer Research to Boost Conversions” is practical how-to article written by Jennifer Havice.