Allegiance Blog

It has been a joy to watch our clients’ Voice of Customer initiatives season and mature over the last few years. Some things do get better with age, and a finely-honed VoC initiative is no exception. This is a reminder, however, to continue sweating the small stuff. Specifically, I mean reacting to tactical customer feedback in a prompt fashion: Addressing customer concerns and complaints swiftly and sincerely with empathy, and responding quickly to customer compliments to reinforce their enthusiasm. Read this post for an excellent example.

Best practice companies are not only listening to voice of the customer, but they are using that feedback to increase customer retention and loyalty, solve customer challenges and develop new products and services. They are also using new technologies to streamline surveys and feedback management programs to gain a better understanding of why customers do business with them. From our experience working with them, here are nine habits that make them successful.

Allegiance recently conducted a focus group of VOC practitioners at leading companies. One of the questions asked was: What is on your wish list for what you’d like to see in a VOC program in the future? Read this post to view a few of the responses and add your own.

There is a lot of talk in the industry about making Voice of Customer data more actionable. But to achieve this, you must first understand the type of data that is uniquely available and actionable in a successful VOC program. VOC programs fail most often because they provide just scores, changes in scores, or data that is only part of the solution. Actionable data is data that you can use to improve the operations of the company. It goes beyond answering “what” to understanding “why.”

With the growth of digital transactions, more consumer data is becoming available through smartphones, GPS, mobile banking, etc. The availability of “big data” means marketers and customer experience professionals have the potential to gain deeper insight into customer behavior.

Listen to what leading VOC practitioners Arkadi Kuhlmann of ING Bank and Jim Bampos of EMC Corp. are saying and what led to their success(es) in this interview on BlogTalk radio. Then tune in to Allegiance Radio on BlogTalk radio each week. It’s a fun way to engage, learn and share best practices for success.

A sold out attendance Voice of Customer (VOC) professionals and Customer Intelligence experts gathered Monday at the Allegiance Engage Summit to share experiences and discover new ways to leverage customer insights to drive business growth. Read on for some highlights from today’s speakers.

The names we give them vary from company to company: rogue, unofficial, unsanctioned, ghost, one-off. Voice of Customer (VOC) experts appreciate the power of a neat customer feedback strategy. But in many organizations, there is no central authority governing how, when and why customers are surveyed.
When your customers are surveyed in a disjointed, illogical and inconsistent manner, both your VOC initiative and your customer relationships suffer.

Customer relationships are dynamic, never static. Customers’ perceptions and beliefs are continuously evolving. Each customer interaction with your company (either direct or indirect) has the power to strengthen, weaken, or destroy customer relationships. Can you afford the risk of not capturing your customers’ voices on a regular and consistent basis?

Voice of the Customer (VOC) objectives are vital for any organization and provide roadmap to a successful VOC program. It’s like going into a new city and trying to navigate without a map or GPS. Without having clear directions to the address, you can spend a lot of time, resources, and energy trying to get to your destination. The same applies to your VOC program objectives.