While it makes sense that companies interested in keeping their customers satisf
ID: 456299 • Letter: W
Question
While it makes sense that companies interested in keeping their customers satisfied and increasing customer loyalty need to pay attention to the Voice Of Customers (VOC), why is it difficult to "hear the customer?" What are some of the problems associated with the methods typically used to solicit customer feedback? What can companies do to link the VOC to their service processes and be flexible enough to adapt to individual customer complaints? How has social media affected this process? You are encouraged to provide examples from this week’s assigned articles and/or videos in your posts.
Explanation / Answer
Voice of the Customer can be explained as a process of collecting feedback and responses of the customers, so that the companies can offer them a better product with high quality as per their satisfaction level.
Product management is one of the most important functions in the organization's pursuit of profits. With ever expanding globalization and increasingly fierce competition, the stakes are higher than ever--and the room for error narrower than ever.
Customer loyalty measures customers’ likeliness to continue doing business with your company and their willingness to perform partnership activities, such as referring others to do business with you, too. It’s safe to say customer satisfaction is a prerequisite for customer loyalty; however, customer satisfaction does not mean customers will return.
Satisfaction and loyalty fell to the companies who could innovate faster or cheaper. Now, offering a better or less expensive product is not always the answer, especially if the advantages can be quickly copied by competitors.
The key to earning the loyalty of customers today is understanding and, better yet, anticipating their needs. In this regard, it’s the organizations that can tap into the voice of the customer that can achieve best success
VoC programs does not come from capturing customer interactions or collecting customer feedback. It comes from generating actionable insights out of the mass of raw data contained in these interactions and feedback. That means going beyond simplistic questions that give a snapshot view of products and services, and making sure that the right people get the right information at the right time and in the right form to help them infuse all company policies and offerings with the voice of the customer.
Measuring customer satisfaction may not feel like the most important thing on your big to-do list. After all, you have things like revenue numbers, web analytics, and a host of KPIs that tell you how your business is doing. But by giving your customers a voice, you’ll learn what you could be doing better.
One of the main reasons customers engage with a brand is when they need something fixed. Customers who had problems and got them resolved are 89% more likely to buy from you again. This percentage is higher than those who bought from you and never had any problems.
Whether you are solving a problem or simply engaging with customers, multiple layers of engagement are required to build a long-term relationship.
Outlining the process as well as desired outcomes is essential for gathering customer feedback the smart way; otherwise, you may be blindly asking for feedback that will only muddy your understanding of your customers.
Main elements for feedback via email are:
Usability testing requires more upfront planning, but far and away delivers more insights than any of the methods listed here. It uncovers things customers sometimes don’t even know they are thinking about or struggling with, and usually provides you with a clear path to make the experience better.
Listening through social media can prove particularly useful for gathering candid feedback from customers. social listening direct comments or mentions on social networks aren’t the only way for your business to get responses.
Send out an email survey when a complaint ticket is closed. The aim of this survey is to determine whether the resolution is in accordance with the customer’s expectations.
Such surveys work well when there are only a few questions. A simple option is to provide your customers the option to rate their experience on a scale of 1 to 5. Over time, these ratings can reveal valuable trends.
Outside consultants can deploy a variety of methods to gather unbiased customer feedback. It's not a bad idea to hire a consultant every few years to make sure you are hearing your customers.
Using Google Analytics and other Web analytic tools, you can spot problems in the shopping experience. You may find that 90 percent of customers exit your website on a certain page and that should be a red flag for you to troubleshoot.
The most important thing for big brands to understand is that customer complaints amplified by social media will affect your brand and every brand with increasing frequency. It is a reality of the Age of the Customer. Some complaints will be false and intentionally malicious, some routine and minor, and a few will be embarrassing and damaging to your reputation and stock price. The response to these complaints can range from ignoring, to correcting, to apologizing. In every case a companies’ ability to quickly identify, understand, and respond appropriately is the key to minimizing the social spread and impact.
Social media is used to communicate a company’s message is vitally important.
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