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Voice of Your Customer (VoC)
Our Customers are talking…
But Are We Listening?
I
t has been proven that most organizations do not
actively listen to what customers are saying. A firm
that has no customer satisfaction program and
does not train employees to listen and take action
on the voice of the customer (VoC), opens her doors
to competition.
A clear fact about VoC is that all customers speak.
What they say are ‘moments of truth’. Whether
positive or negative, they form early warning
indicators. It is therefore unadvisable to term any
comment as insignificant, because they can alert
you to a potential problem before it turns into a
formal complaint.
How can you identify VoC?
Types of VoC
include offhand remarks, comments, complaints,
suggestions, facial expressions and body language,
written letters, phone calls, and third party
information. The
‘
Listen, Collect, Analyse, Learn,
Improve’
(LCALI)
process can help organizations
gather and act on customers’ comments.
But why Bother?
There are myriad reasons it pays to
know what is on your customers’ minds.
1. Customer Retention:
wouldn’t you like to know
and fix a developing situation before it results in
a lost customer?
2. Customer Satisfaction:
wouldn’t it be beneficial
to have a methodology for gathering and
processing customer feedback, a process that
will enable your organization to obtain and
retain a leading position in the market place?
And wouldn’t it be better to not have to rely
entirely on informal hearsay and surveys with
their low response rates?
3. Employee Satisfaction:
Wouldn’t it be useful to
be able to directly reinforce your organization’s
customer focus through measurements,
feedback and positive reinforcements of your
responsible employees?
4. Cost Avoidance:
Would it not be a decided
advantage to know you have the best possible
approach to avoiding costly mistakes that
could result from failure to hear the voices of our
customers?
WHAT TO DO?
All staff are to be aware that they are
listening
posts
to gather all titbits of information about their
customers. You have to be an informal field listener
on the job.
After getting information,
take action and follow
up. Do not ignore any
information. Do not
listen too little and act
too late!
BY JOSEPHINE ANYANWU
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