What is Voice of the Customer (VoC)?
The Voice of the Customer (VoC) is how companies listen to what their customers say, figure out what it actually means, and then do something useful with it. The whole point of VoC is to truly understand where customers are coming from—what they expect, what they need, and what frustrates them along the way. This helps businesses improve their products, services, and the overall customer interaction, especially across an omnichannel customer experience where users move between multiple touchpoints.
Instead of just doing random surveys, VoC is like having a constant feedback loop. It pulls info from everywhere – surveys, convos, support requests, product reviews, and even how people act when using the product. The goal is to get a complete sense of what customers are thinking and feeling.
VoC is super important, especially if you are creating products. VoC makes sure that product decisions are based on what customers actually want. That way, product teams don’t end up wasting time on stuff nobody cares about and instead focus on changes that make a real difference for users. When VoC is done well, companies can:
- Understand the why behind customer feedback, adding context to ratings, complaints, and suggestions
- Identify unmet needs, expectations, and recurring pain points customers face while using the product
- Synthesize feedback at scale and distribute insights across departments so decisions are informed by the customer’s voice
In short, VoC bridges the gap between customer sentiment and internal decision-making.
Advantages of a strong voice of the customer program
A great thing about a Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is that it lets companies figure out why customers do what they do, not just what they do. Data on what people click on can tell you what they’re doing, but it’s getting actual feedback that tells you what they really want, what annoys them, and what they expect.
When you get info straight from customers with surveys, chats, and stuff like that, VoC gives you a view that the people inside your company might miss.
Key benefits of a strong VoC program include:
- Improved product experience and CX: Customer input can give you ideas for new stuff, tweaks, or just making things easier to use. This makes VoC super helpful when you are planning out your product.
- More efficient use of resources: Instead of guessing, your teams can put effort into ideas that customers actually want.
- Increased customer loyalty: VoC helps share what customers are saying, so everyone knows how their job affects the customer.
- Organizational alignment: VoC helps socialize customer insights across teams, encouraging employees to see how their work impacts the customer experience.
- Accountability and follow-through: A good VoC program makes sure feedback gets used to make changes, not just filed away.
In the world of SaaS, where it’s easy to switch to a different company, how a customer feels is what sets you apart. VoC gives companies a way to keep making that feeling better, all the time.
How to build a voice of the customer program: 6 Key strategies
Building an effective VoC program requires intention, alignment, and consistency. The following six strategies provide a practical framework for getting started.
1. Get Program Buy-In From Key Stakeholders
VoC programs usually start in customer support or product teams, but they only work if everyone works together. A better customer experience helps the whole business, so it’s important for all departments to agree on what they want to achieve.
For example, if a support manager wants better live chat satisfaction, they may need help from finance (budget), IT (system changes), and sales (understanding usage and renewals). Early buy-in ensures VoC insights, backed by customer experience analytics, actually drive company-wide improvements.
2. Determine Which VoC Channels to Focus On
Customers talk to businesses in a bunch of ways – email, chat, social media, texts, surveys, etc. Not all of these ways give you the same good feedback, so pick the ones that give you the most helpful stuff.
The best ways are easy for customers to use while still giving you a deep understanding. Short surveys in chat or phone systems are good for quick happiness scores, while interviews or groups give you more detailed info. Use the ways that customers already use to talk to you.
3. Adopt and Integrate Feedback Software
Customer feedback software makes VoC easier by doing surveys automatically, figuring out scores, and checking feelings in written answers. These tools save you time, effort and keep everything in one place.
Better software can also work with your customer and support systems, so you can connect feedback with what you already know about customers. Checking feelings, mainly, helps teams quickly get a sense of emotions in lots of feedback.
4. Look for Trends and Patterns
Once you have the information, you have to look at it. Dashboards and reports help you find what’s up with happiness scores, feelings, and keywords that keep popping up. A dropping score means there’s a problem – and customer comments tell you why.
Looking at what keeps happening turns basic feedback into things you can act on, letting teams fix the most important stuff based on how often it happens, how bad it is, and how much it matters.
5. Follow Up With Customers
Following up on feedback is super important. Thank customers for their input, and if you can, tell them how you’ll use it. If customers are unhappy, reaching out can stop them from leaving and fix the relationship.
Personal replies and fixes show that you care about feedback and take it seriously.
6. Keep Collecting Feedback Continuously
VoC isn’t a one-time thing. As products and experiences change, so do customer expectations. Getting constant feedback makes sure you can measure how much fixes help and change your plans when needed.
Every time you repeat this, teams make their way better—changing how they get feedback, the questions they ask, and who they ask—until VoC becomes the way the company works.
Conclusion
Listening to what customers say isn’t just about getting feedback; it’s a key way to make sure your products, services, and the whole customer experience actually meet their needs. If you grab customer insights, check them out, and then put them into action, you can cut down on wasted effort, get more folks using your stuff, and create experiences that keep people coming back.
If you do it right and get everyone on board, listening to customers turns into a super way to keep getting better and growing by putting customers first.
