How to Better Capture Voice of the Customer Feedback

Noble Systems share their advice for better capturing the Voice of the Customer (VoC) and using these insights to reward employees.

Customers tell companies all the time what they think about their products and services. In fact, they are often more than eager to offer their opinions and advice on how the companies they choose to do business with can serve them better.

Many customers are even happy to provide information about what the competition is doing via phone calls into the contact centre, emails, chats, surveys and social media.

This feedback produces VoC that can help your company redefine and elevate the customer experience throughout the journey which, in turn, strengthens engagement and loyalty.

VoC identifies the gaps between what customers expect and the actual experience they have with your company.

To capture everything that customers say about your company, regardless who they are talking to or what channel they are communicating on, requires a systematic approach. It also requires an all-employee effort and a customer-centric culture from the top down.

Training employees when and how to ask for feedback is vital. Although it’s not easy and does take time, it is well worth the effort.

According to the Aberdeen Group, those companies that are best-in-class at capturing and acting on VoC insights realize a 10x greater increase in annual revenue.

VoC Technologies That Monitor Feedback and Reward Employees

In addition to a VoC platform, other enabling customer feedback technologies are speech analytics and gamification.

Speech analytics monitors and analyzes customer feedback and other insights automatically so that companies can see trends or spot early warning signs, and even provide guidance to contact centre agents and other employees in real time during an interaction.

Gamification uses game mechanics to motivate and reward employees for exhibiting desired behaviors, including gathering customer feedback.

By adding the power of gamification to a VoC platform, companies can put customer feedback at the centre of their reward and recognition program.

Every interaction becomes an opportunity to grow employees, elevate customer evangelism, and increase customer lifetime value.

Gamification also enhances the ability to route customer feedback to the right department and person in real time for more immediate action.

Gamified customer feedback KPIs can be tallied by individuals, teams, departments, and locations, with results displayed on employee dashboards as well as on leaderboards throughout the office.

Doing so allows each employee or employee group to see how their achievements stack up against others.

Gamification Also Rewards Customers for Their Feedback

Employees and supervisors can give kudos to those who are doing well and offer words of encouragement or additional coaching and training to those who may be struggling.

In addition, gamification can prompt those at the top of the leaderboard to share tips on best practices for gathering customer feedback as well as improving the overall customer experience.

In addition to using gamification and VoC technologies to reward employees for gathering customer feedback, many companies are also using them to reward customers for providing immediate feedback when asked.

Gamification can solicit a more accurate and emotional response, simplify the feedback process, increase engagement, and make it more fun.

Through the use of gamification, companies can provide customers with information about their products and events, encourage greater interaction, and transform them into brand advocates.

Companies Must Act on Customer Feedback

Employees and customers need to see that the VoC insights they provide are being heard and acted upon.

After all, the whole purpose of gathering customer feedback is to gain a greater understanding of their needs, concerns and wants so that that companies can implement changes to serve them better.

This sustains an internal focus on the customer over time while improving customer satisfaction and building trust by strengthening brand loyalty.