Why Implement a VoC Program? ebook

Transcription

1 Why Implement a VoC Program? ebook

2 Customer Experience: The Great Differentiator With rare exceptions, companies no longer have the luxury of competing on price alone. Today, the great differentiator is the customer experience (CX). Thanks to some great companies like Apple and Starbucks, customer expectations are at an all-time high for just about everything: service, selection, convenience, atmosphere, and more. Each one of these components are an established part of your overall customer experience and an opportunity to rise above the competition. Individually and collectively, these CX deliverables can be linked with financial and transactional metrics to show how they impact your key drivers of business results. In this networked age, a Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is a foundation for listening, understanding and improving the customer experience. Customers value an experience that shows understanding and respect. It is increasingly impossible for companies to get by on anything less than an honest effort to do right by the people they serve. Blog: Great Customer Experience Always Pays Off

3 Feedback from All Fronts With customer expectations higher than ever, a one size fits all approach to your brand s customer experience strategy isn t going to cut it. Your customer experience is not the same as your competitor s, and the way your brand collects feedback shouldn t be the same either. By offering a convenient channel for every customer to leave constructive feedback, your organization can begin to understand the root causes behind changes in performance at any level. VoC feedback solutions provide vital insights explaining the cause and effect of customer perceptions. The right customer experience platform will automatically aggregate and analyze all customer voices to reveal opportunities for improvement in full detail advising for issues at specific times of day, geographical locations, demographics, languages, and other defining parameters. In this way, companies can balance the wants and needs of their customers with the financial and strategic priorities of the organization to create a mutually beneficial relationship with their customers. Blog: 4 Keys to VoC Success: Key #2

4 Limitations of Mystery Shopping Mystery shopping programs are a popular feedback source for many brands. And to be fair, these programs do produce some valuable customer experience insights, particularly when performing compliance audits with corporate standards. However, there are a number of reasons why they should not be relied upon as a primary source of customer experience insights. Bias The fact that mystery shoppers are paid for their services is a huge red flag. Their relationship with your brand is not the same as your actual customers, and their expectations going into an interaction with your brand will not be the same. Mystery shoppers visit your locations for a different reason than do actual customers. VoC programs collect and verify feedback provided voluntarily by real customers, ensuring insights are truly representative of your customer base. Price & Accuracy Mystery shopping is expensive. For the price of a single mystery shopper observation each month, your brand can typically expect to receive about customer reviews through a VoC program. One mystery shopper per month at each of your brand s locations is not reflective of the overall customer experience. Location managers often disagree with reviews provided by mystery shoppers because the feedback comes from one person and from one day. Receiving reviews from customers per month through a VoC program leaves little to the imagination when it comes to your brand s customer experience.

5 Lack of Actionability When each of your brand s locations have only one mystery shopper review to work with each month, little can be done in the way of staff training and driving operational improvement. Because VoC programs collect large amounts of real customer feedback each month, they are able to pinpoint problematic areas of your customer experience and provide clear plans of attack to resolve incidents and avoid them in the future. Connect at Every Level Behavioral and operational changes don t start and end at a single management level. They happen at every level of your organization all the time. Each management level plays a specific role in your brand s customer experience and requires information that applies directly to their level of operation to drive positive change. Without a clear line of communication between each management level and a clear expectation of what each manager s responsibility is the consistent customer experience that your brand strives to deliver to its customers will fall apart. VoC programs connect everyone from location-level managers to C-suite executives. They account for the diverse needs of each management level and deliver actionable customer feedback reports monthly, weekly, daily, and in real-time. Blog: 4 Keys to VoC Success: Key #1

6 VoC Programs: DDIY (Don t Do It Yourself) A little DIY never hurt anyone except when it comes to designing and implementing a modern VoC program. Then it actually could do some damage. Part of the appeal of DIY work is cost effectiveness. This may be an illusion. There is simply no easy way to replicate years of experience and a VoC platform of advanced customer feedback research, analysis, and reporting software. The customer data and insights your brand will lose by not using a VoC program will cost much more than the relatively small amount invested to utilize a third-party VoC provider. Trying to go it alone when implementing a VoC program may not result in immediate customer experience pandemonium, but it will negatively affect your business over time. The Age of the Customer is here, and brand priorities are shifting. Unless your company s the size of Google or Apple, you re probably not equipped to handle the deluge of customer feedback out there. Blog: 4 Keys to VoC Success: Key #4

7 About InMoment InMoment acquired Empathica in September of 2013, to become the industry leader in Voice of the Customer solutions. InMoment helps businesses improve customer retention and increase profits by gathering and analyzing customer feedback. Our solutions arm multi-location companies with real-time, actionable insights for operations improvement at all organizational levels. We are a full-service partner, providing leading-edge text analytics, strategic guidance, market insights, predictive analytics, dashboard reporting software, and an unparalleled social media advocacy solution. Our international presence covers more than 125 countries, 32 languages, 25 industries, and more than 300 top brands. Contact Us sales@inmoment.com Copyright 2014, InMoment, Inc