Looking at patterns of consumerism in the modern-day highlights one thing primarily, that consumers are a lot tougher a nut to crack than they used to be. More than ever before in our past, the modern-day consumer wants everything today (if not yesterday). They have high expectations, expect a high level of customer service standard and a consistency to match. This is why most brand require some extra level of thinking in terms of marketing and managing corporate strategy to suit the needs of the modern customer. A company can achieve this by first understanding the Voice of the Customer (VoC).
The Voice of the Customer (VoC) is an interesting concept. It is the process of collecting and analysing feedback that your customers have given about their experiences of purchasing products or services from your company. It also describes the expectations that your customers have of your brand. The focus is on finding out what your customers need, what your customers want, the expectations they have, the understanding your customers have about your brand, and the way in which you can improve your products and/or services as a result of the findings.
A VoC programme can be implemented using the experience of a CX professional. This will help your company to put together plans to communicate more effectively with your customers, to have more direct engagement with them in a positive fashion, and understand how to act on customer feedback in a way that doesn’t just appear to be paying lip service to your customers, but instead actually offers them a genuine path towards a solution or greater customer satisfaction.
There are a few steps that a business must take before committing to an effective Voice of Customer programme. The first thing to consider is whether the leadership of the organisation is committed to establishing a culture that focuses on the customer. Strong leadership is required to get a VoC programme off the ground, as to make sure all employees are in support of putting the customer first, it is important for the leadership to also genuinely want it.
Once you have the broad support for VoC you can begin to develop ideas that have a clarity of purpose. With clear ideas of why you want to gain an understanding of VoC you can implement plans to capture it effectively, with different approaches working for different industries and different types of customer interaction.
Customer Experience Agencies have a deep understanding of how to capture the VoC of your current customer base, as well as your desired customer range. CX professionals can put together extensive processes to capture, collate and analyse the VoC that you need to push your brand forward. This includes plenty of feedback from both sides of the till, as well as an understanding of how the processes you have within your organisation impact on customer satisfaction levels. Understanding your customer is a sure-fire way to ensure that improvement continues and self-analysis precipitates that process. With a market research and customer experience specialist, your company can continue to grow and meet the demanding expectations of the modern consumer.