Voice of the Customer (VoC) is a popular term used to describe the process by which customer preferences and expectations are gathered and prioritized. In many cases, Voice of the Customer programs are run independently as market research programs. They produce a detailed set of customer wants and needs, which companies can then prioritize.
Similarly, companies use customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to track customer wants and needs. CRMs like Salesforce allow companies to gather up-to-the-minute, relevant data about their customers, store that info in one place, and then use it provide more efficient service.
CRMs also help coordinate activities around customer engagement for a new sales opportunity, support ticket, or marketing campaign.
Developing a Voice of the Customer (VOC) Program
So how can you combine these efforts to take Voice of the Customer Programs to the next level? Simply by tying VoC programs directly into your CRM and managing customer care in one centralized location.
Countless forward-thinking companies are doing just that.
How does a Voice of the Customer program work?
Online surveys are a key tool for VoC Programs. Surveys help companies connect with customers, gather market data about their wants and needs, and identify areas they can improve. But today, its possible to do much more than conduct a customer survey and mine the results for trends and patterns.
Individual survey responses can be tied to specific customer records in your CRM, so that customer feedback automatically associates with CRM Contacts, Accounts, Cases, and more.
As a result, you gain what folks in the CRM space call a “360-degree view of the customer.” You know what products they’ve purchased, what you’re trying to sell them, how well you’re supporting them, how often you’re contacting them, and what they want to see from you next.
Instead of an anonymous data set hidden away in a marketer’s Excel spreadsheet, the Voice of the Customer becomes concrete data that you can track and analyze. This means that market researchers can spot trends and make recommendations for their company, and the entire company gains visibility.
With relevant customer feedback, sales organizations can approach opportunities more strategically, customer service teams can leverage customer preferences and historical data to deliver better support, and marketing teams can run more effective campaigns.
When companies tap into the Voice of the Customer and use it to round out their customer data, they can take action in an entirely new way.
The value of taking action
The power of any tool depends on the user. A CRM can do a whole lot more when you build upon its standard features and customize based on your organization’s unique needs. Similarly, a customer survey can enact a whole lot more action when it’s integrated with a CRM.
For example, companies can bolster their online reputation by automatically directing happy customers to public review sites and notifying specific team members.
Here’s how that might go:
The customer raves about the company in a survey.
Custom survey logic leads the customer to a specific survey thank you page, which asks them to submit a public review.
At the same time, the customer’s survey responses map to Salesforce, where a workflow triggers an email to the marketing manager.
The marketing manager can then reach out for an interview, offer a discount on future purchases, or whatever they deem fit.
Or take another example, from the other side of the spectrum. When a customer is unhappy, a Salesforce survey workflow can lead them down a path that gets them the support they need as soon as possible. Here’s how that might go:
The customer responds to a Net Promoter Score® (NPS®) survey and says they’re highly unlikely to recommend the company to others.
Custom survey logic asks the customer for a bit more information about what went wrong.
Their responses map to Salesforce and appear in the team’s customer health dashboard, which displays a variety of customer service metrics. The negative response also creates a follow-up task for the customer service manager.
This can initiate a number of things. The customer service manager could reach out to the customer to make things right, looping in the customer success manager or any other relevant team members.
In both examples, the company can close the loop and deliver a seamless customer experience. From the customer’s perspective, they’ve received immediate attention after sharing feedback, which is (sadly) a pretty rare experience.
Not only has the company made the most of the feedback they received, but they show the customer that her voice is heard. In the future, that customer might be more likely to speak up, and the company will have more opportunities to deliver an outstanding customer experience.
Requirements of a successful Voice of the Customer program
As more companies feed their CRMs with frequent, reliable Voice of the Customer data, GetFeedback is the natural choice. Built by previous Salesforce executives and designed for Salesforce users, our dynamic survey mapping and seamless integration make it simple to take profound action with the feedback you collect.
Learn more about GetFeedback for Salesforce today.
