What do your customers think about your business? Unfortunately, you can’t read their minds, so a Voice of the Customer program is essential. And you have to have the right voice of customer tools to make it possible.
Let’s look at types of voice of customer tools, best practices for implementing them, and some of the most popular options on the market.
What are Voice of Customer tools?
Voice of Customer (VoC) tools are powerful resources that help businesses collect, analyze, and understand customer feedback and insights directly. These tools encompass various methods and technologies, such as surveys, feedback forms, social media monitoring, sentiment analysis, and more. VoC tools provide valuable data about customer preferences, needs, opinions, and overall satisfaction by gathering information from different touchpoints and channels.
Businesses can leverage VoC tools to:
- Improve Customer Experience: By understanding customer feedback, pain points, and preferences, businesses can tailor their products, services, and interactions to meet customer needs better.
- Enhance Product Development: VoC tools offer insights into what customers like or dislike about existing products, aiding in developing new offerings that align with market demands.
- Increase Customer Satisfaction: Addressing customer concerns and acting upon feedback can increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.
- Optimize Marketing Strategies: VoC insights guide marketers in creating targeted campaigns and messaging that resonate with the audience, boosting engagement and conversion rates.
- Drive Innovation: VoC tools encourage innovative thinking by providing businesses with a direct line to customer suggestions and ideas for new features or improvements.
- Competitor Analysis: Businesses can identify strengths and weaknesses in their offerings by comparing customer sentiment and experiences with those of competitors.
- Data-Driven Decision-Making: VoC tools provide data-driven insights, helping businesses make informed decisions based on real customer input rather than assumptions.
In essence, Voice of Customer tools enable businesses to listen to the actual voice of their customers, enabling them to adapt, improve, and thrive in a customer-centric market.
Let’s explore the many structures that voice of customer tools can take.
Surveys and feedback forms
When it comes to voice of customer tools, surveys and feedback forms are among the most popular and widely used. These tools allow businesses to ask specific questions to their customers about their experiences with their products or services, providing valuable insights into customer satisfaction and preferences.
Surveys and feedback forms can be delivered in various formats, including email, website pop-ups, and mobile apps. This versatility allows businesses to collect feedback at different touchpoints in the customer journey, providing a comprehensive view of the customer experience.
One of the significant advantages of surveys and feedback forms is their ability to provide businesses with targeted insights into specific areas of the customer experience. By asking specific questions about different aspects of their products or services, companies can identify pain points and areas for improvement, enabling them to make data-driven decisions that enhance the overall customer experience.
Customer interviews and focus groups
While surveys and feedback forms are popular Voice of the Customer tools, they may not always provide the in-depth feedback businesses need to make informed decisions. In such cases, customer interviews and focus groups can be highly effective methods of gathering customer feedback.
Customer interviews involve direct, one-on-one interaction with customers, where businesses can ask open-ended questions to gather more detailed insights into their experiences. This method is particularly useful for gathering feedback on new products or services, as businesses can receive detailed feedback on features, design, and functionality.
Focus groups are another effective way to gather feedback from customers. These sessions bring together customers to discuss specific topics related to the business’s products or services. Focus groups can give businesses valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and opinions, allowing them to make data-driven decisions that improve the overall customer experience.
Social media monitoring
Social media monitoring is an essential Voice of the Customer tools for businesses that want to keep a pulse on what customers say about their brand, products, and services. These tools involve tracking and analyzing social media channels to gather customer feedback and gain insights into their experiences and opinions.
Social media monitoring allows businesses to monitor their social media channels in real-time, providing timely and comprehensive views of customer sentiment. By tracking mentions, comments, and reviews on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, businesses can quickly identify customer concerns or complaints and respond proactively to address them.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a powerful customer service metric that has become a staple in many businesses’ Voice of the Customer programs. This metric is widely used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction, focusing on the likelihood of customers recommending a brand to others. The NPS is calculated based on the responses to a simple question that asks customers how likely they are to recommend a company’s product or service to a friend or colleague.
NPS surveys typically involve a scale of 0-10, with customers rating their likelihood to recommend on this scale. Customers who provide a score of 9 or 10 are considered promoters, while those who score between 0-6 are detractors. Customers who provide a score of 7 or 8 are considered neutral. The NPS is then calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters, resulting in a score ranging from -100 to 100.
NPS Calculator
Number of responses
who rated you
9 or 10
Number of responses
who rated you
7 or 8
Number of responses
who rated you a
6 or below
One of the significant advantages of the NPS is its simplicity. This metric gives businesses a clear and straightforward measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, because the NPS is a standardized metric, it allows businesses to benchmark their performance against competitors and industry averages.
Customer journey mapping
Customer journey mapping is an important Voice of the Customer tool that can help businesses better understand their customers’ experiences. This tool visually represents the steps customers take when interacting with a brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase support.
By mapping out the customer journey, businesses can identify pain points and areas for improvement in the customer experience. For example, a customer journey map may reveal that customers experience frustration when navigating a website or feel disconnected from the brand after purchasing. By addressing these pain points, businesses can improve the overall customer experience and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
One of the significant advantages of customer journey mapping is its ability to provide businesses with a holistic view of the customer experience. By mapping out customer touchpoints and interactions with a brand, businesses can better understand their customers’ needs and preferences. This, in turn, can help businesses to develop targeted solutions that better meet customer needs and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Moreover, customer journey mapping can help businesses identify innovation and differentiation opportunities. By analyzing the customer journey, businesses can identify areas to differentiate themselves from the competition and develop innovative products and services that better meet customer needs. This can lead to increased customer acquisition and revenue growth.
In addition to these benefits, customer journey mapping can help businesses optimize their marketing and sales strategies. By gaining insights into the customer journey, businesses can develop targeted messaging and promotional campaigns that resonate with their customers, increasing the likelihood of conversion and revenue growth.
How do you create a VoC strategy?
Implementing Voice of the Customer tools can be a game-changer for businesses looking to enhance their customer experiences. However, it’s essential to follow best practices to ensure that these tools are effective. Here are some best practices.
Define goals and objectives
Implementing Voice of the Customer tools can be complex and requires careful planning and execution to ensure success. One critical aspect of this process is defining clear goals and objectives for the program.
Defining goals and objectives involves determining what the business hopes to achieve by gathering customer feedback. This may include improving customer satisfaction, increasing customer retention, identifying new product opportunities, or optimizing marketing and sales strategies. By setting clear goals and objectives, businesses can ensure that they are collecting and using the right data to achieve their desired outcomes.
Determine which Voice of the Customer tools to use
As businesses look to implement Voice of the Customer tools, selecting the right tools and channels to gather customer feedback is essential. There are numerous Voice of the Customer tools available, each with its unique strengths and limitations, and choosing the right ones can significantly impact the program’s effectiveness.
When selecting Voice of the Customer tools, one crucial factor is the business’s goals and objectives. Different tools may be better suited to achieving specific outcomes. For example, customer interviews or focus groups may be the best option if a business aims to gather feedback on a new product. These methods involve direct customer interaction, enabling businesses to gain more detailed insights into their experiences.
Choose the right Voice of Customer questions to ask
The effectiveness of Voice of the Customer tools relies heavily on the questions businesses ask their customers. The questions asked should be relevant to the business’s goals and objectives and provide valuable insights into customer experiences, needs, and preferences.
Clarity is critical to consider when developing questions for Voice of the Customer tools. Questions should be clear and easy for customers to understand. Confusing or vague questions may lead to inaccurate or incomplete data, ultimately compromising the effectiveness of the Voice of the Customer program.
Moreover, questions should be concise and to the point. Long or complex questions may confuse customers, leading to lower response rates or incomplete data. Keeping questions short and straightforward can help businesses maximize response rates and gather more comprehensive customer feedback.
Make it easy for customers to provide feedback
Ensuring that customers find it easy and convenient to provide feedback is vital for the success of a Voice of the Customer program. Customers are more likely to provide feedback when the process is simple, quick, and accessible. To achieve this, businesses can employ various strategies and techniques.
One of the most critical factors to consider when designing Voice of the Customer tools is user-friendliness. Completing surveys or feedback forms should be straightforward to navigate, with no technical difficulties. The tools should have clear instructions and guidance for customers to ensure a seamless and stress-free experience.
Another important aspect is the length and complexity of surveys or feedback forms. Long, complicated surveys may discourage customers from providing feedback, leading to lower response rates and compromising the effectiveness of the Voice of the Customer program. Instead, businesses should aim to keep surveys concise, focusing on the most critical aspects of the customer experience.
Last but certainly not least, businesses should consider providing incentives for customers to participate in the feedback process. These incentives can come in various forms, such as discounts, coupons, or rewards points, and can effectively motivate customers to provide feedback. Incentives can also contribute to building customer loyalty and increasing overall customer satisfaction.
Act on customer feedback promptly
Collecting customer feedback is just the first step. To be effective, businesses must act on this feedback promptly. This means addressing pain points, improving products and services, and following up with customers to let them know their feedback was heard.
Following best practices is essential for effectively implementing voice of the customer tools. By defining goals and objectives, determining which tools to use, choosing the right questions, making it easy for customers to provide feedback, and acting on customer feedback promptly, businesses can gain valuable insights into their customers’ experiences and create exceptional customer experiences that drive revenue growth.
Which tools can be used for prioritizing VoC?
Choosing the right Voice of the Customer tool is essential for businesses that want to gather valuable customer feedback and improve their offerings. Here are some of the top tools available and their features.
SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is a popular cloud-based survey tool that allows businesses to create and distribute surveys and feedback forms. The tool comes with a range of features, including survey templates, question types, and data analysis tools. SurveyMonkey offers both free and paid plans, with pricing starting at $25 per month when billed annually
Qualtrics XM
Qualtrics XM is an enterprise-level customer feedback management platform that offers a range of Voice of the Customer tools, including surveys, feedback forms, and customer journey mapping. The tool comes with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights from their customer feedback. Qualtrics offers custom pricing based on business needs. Qualtrics doesn’t provide pricing without signing up for a demo.
Medallia
Medallia is a customer experience management platform that offers a range of Voice of the Customer tools, including surveys, feedback forms, and social media monitoring. The tool comes with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights from their customer feedback. Medallia offers custom pricing based on business needs. Medallia doesn’t offer pricing without talking to a sales professional first.
GetFeedback
GetFeedback is a customer feedback management platform that offers a range of Voice of the Customer tools, including survey templates for NPS®, CSAT, CES, etc, feedback forms, SalesForce integration, and customer journey mapping. The tool comes with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights from their customer feedback. GetFeedback offers a free plan, but doesn’t publish pricing.
UserTesting: Human Insight Platform
UserTesting is a customer feedback management platform that offers a range of Voice of the Customer tools, including customer interviews, usability testing, and A/B testing. The tool comes with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights from their customer feedback. UserTesting offers custom pricing based on business needs. UserTesting’s starter Essentials plan requires a connection with a sales professional to understand pricing.
Hotjar
Hotjar is a customer feedback management platform that offers a range of Voice of the Customer tools, including surveys, feedback forms, and heat maps. The tool comes with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights from their customer feedback. Hotjar offers both free and paid plans, with a paid plan, pricing starting at $32 per month.
Delighted
Delighted is a customer feedback management platform that offers a range of Voice of the Customer tools, including surveys and feedback forms. The platform comes with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights from their customer feedback. Delighted, like many of its peers, doesn’t publish its pricing.
Google Forms
Google Forms is a cloud-based survey tool that allows businesses to create and distribute surveys and feedback forms. The tool comes with a range of features, including survey templates, question types, and data analysis tools. Google Forms is free to use, but we recommend using it with a Google Workspace account instead of an individual account.
Typeform
Typeform is a cloud-based survey tool that allows businesses to create and distribute surveys and feedback forms. The tool comes with a range of features, including survey templates, question types, and data analysis tools. Typeform offers both free and paid plans, with paid plan pricing starting at $25 per month when billed annually.
InMoment
InMoment is a customer feedback management platform that offers a range of Voice of the Customer tools, including surveys, feedback forms, and customer journey mapping. The tool comes with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights from their customer feedback. InMoment offers custom pricing based on business needs. InMoment doesn’t have public pricing at this time.
Wrap up best practices and implementation tips for voice of customer tools
Now that we have explored the different types of the voice of customer tools available to businesses, it’s important to highlight some best practices for implementing them effectively. If you’ve skimmed the entire blog down to this point, this section can serve as your TL;DR.
Firstly, it’s crucial to clearly understand the business objectives and goals before implementing any voice of customer tools. This will ensure that the tools used are aligned with the business’s strategic objectives and can help drive the desired outcomes.
Secondly, selecting the right mix of tools is important based on your business’s specific needs and requirements. While some tools may be more effective for collecting customer feedback at certain points in their journey, others may be better suited for in-depth customer interviews and in-person focus groups. Your team should continuously evaluate the tools available and select the ones that best align with your goals and objectives. Remember, these goals might change as your business grows
Thirdly, it’s important to ensure that the tools are user-friendly, easy for customers to use, and fast. This will ensure that customers are more likely to provide feedback and that the feedback received is more accurate and representative of their experiences.
Finally, it’s important to analyze and act on the feedback received. Your team should establish a clear process for analyzing the feedback received, identifying areas for improvement, and addressing customer concerns and pain points
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