In this digital age, customers are vocal now more than ever. This means organizations can no longer survive if their approach to communicating with customers is one-sided. That is where Voice of the Customer (VoC) comes in, allowing organizations to not only engage their customers but increase customer satisfaction and their bottom line.

What is Voice of the Customer?

Voice of the Customer (VoC) is the feedback provided by an organization’s customers about their products and services. Essentially, it is customers expressing their experience with the organization’s offerings and comparing it to what they expected. With VoC, it is essential for organizations to not only be communicators but listeners as well.

There are many ways in which organizations can capture the voice of the customer. Here are the more popular ones:

• Questionnaires
• Surveys
• Discussion groups
• Online forums
• Phone calls
• Followup emails
• Suggestion boards
• Customer interviews
• Monitoring social media channels

Why is Voice of the Customer Important?

An organization that takes VoC seriously stands to benefit a lot. By running a successful VoC program, it is able to identify the needs and expectations of its customers. This allows the organization to gear its expectations towards delivering what the customer wants. And when customers get what they want, their levels of satisfaction increase.

It is no secret that happy customers are more willing to do further business with the organization. They effectively become loyalists, advocating the organization’s products and services to others. All this translates to more sales, which increases the bottom line in the process.

Also, customers don’t just become loyalists because they got what they want. Another reason for their loyalty is that they feel heard. When customers don’t feel like they are being listened to, they go elsewhere. By taking VoC seriously, organizations can maintain their competitive advantage. This is important, especially in today’s hypercompetitive markets.