VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER

• Focus on issues shared by customers and frontline employees.

• Introduce WOM / M into impact calculations to include social posts and reviews. Point out to product managers that the most successful companies have high levels of customer conquest from WOM / M referrals.

MAKING THE STRATEGIC CASE FOR VOC

Investment in an enhanced VOC process provides, on average, roughly 15 times the ROI of equivalent investment in frontline service and CX activities.

The first step in demonstrating this payoff is to ask,“ What is being done with the existing VOC, and how can its impact be measured?”

A second step is to create a global estimate of the number of customers encountering some type of problem and multiply that number by a conservative revenue value per customer.

Finally, engage Product Management and Marketing on the idea of using VOC to enhance WOM / M, pointing out that the cheapest effective marketing is, as Mike Jannini, former President of The Cheesecake Factory, said,“ Letting your customers do your marketing for you!”

IN CLOSING

This second article is designed to stand on its own, but it is best read as the companion to Part 1, which explains the foundational architecture of high-impact VOC: executive ownership, unified data collection, and AI-enabled analysis.

Together, Part 1 and Part 2 provide a complete framework for redesigning VOC as a strategic growth and improvement engine.

John Goodman is Vice Chairman of Customer Care Measurement and Consulting( CCMC). He has assisted 45 of the Fortune 100 companies. Harper Collins published the second edition of his book, CX 3.0 featuring updates on AI and other technologies as well as research in April 2024.

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