Why are voice of the customer programs vital to success in the next wave of CX?

In today's fast-paced business landscape, understanding and responding to customer needs is more crucial than ever. Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs enable organizations to gather firsthand customer information. They help companies ensure customer satisfaction and align products and services with customer needs. In this piece, I share insights on how these programs, particularly when augmented by AI, are reshaping customer relationships and driving business success in unprecedented ways.

VoC programs enable companies to get immediate, direct feedback from their customers in various areas, including after a customer inquiry, after a sale, or at any point along the customer journey. VoC programs formalize data gathering, enabling business and customer service leaders to identify and remedy potential problems as quickly as possible. For example, a VoC program could allow companies to identify customer service agents that require additional training. AI, applied to VoC, offers the potential to automate the process of identifying areas of need and remediation through real-time coaching.

Companies track customer experience in various ways, including post-call or interaction surveys, live conversations, and focus groups. More recently, companies have begun to adopt AI to automate the gathering of VoC data in real-time. Examples include detecting customer speech to identify a happy or upset customer, automated supervisor escalation for an upset customer, and real-time agent coaching based on the customer conversation.

Among the 544 organizations participating in Metrigy’s Customer Experience Optimization: 2024-25 global research study, post-interaction surveys are the most widely used method of tracking customer interaction. Just 1.7% do not track customer experience at all!

Gathering customer feedback is most effective when a company can correlate across all touch points. This enables the creation of a 360-degree view of customer engagement rather than just having visibility into specific interactions. Among our research participants, 60% have implemented a 360-degree customer view. However, among those with the highest improvement in customer experience metrics, almost 82% have a 360-degree view of the customer.

VoC may also involve proactive rather than reactive customer engagement measurement. For example, a company may conduct regular customer surveys to ensure customer satisfaction instead of just measuring the sentiment of a particular interaction. Companies may also track customer feedback by monitoring brand or product mentions on social media networks.

Across all our participants, nearly 39% say that having a VoC program helps with overall customer success. Digging deeper, into our Customer Experience Optimization: 2024-25 study, we created a success group based on those with the highest measurable improvement in customer service metrics. These metrics included customer experience scores, revenue improvement, cost reductions, and employee efficiency benefits.

We found across the board that successful companies are more likely to have a VoC program and are 1.3x more likely to use AI as part of their VoC efforts than those with no or low measured success. Successful companies are also far more likely to have a 360 degree-view of their customers (81.7% of successful companies have such a view versus just 45.8% of non-successful ones.) In addition, successful companies are 1.5x more likely to conduct proactive outreach as part of their VoC program than those with no or low measured success.

A VoC program should be part of every company’s customer experience measurement plan. VoC allows for real-time and post-interaction data gathering and is a great way to measure customer sentiment outside of specific interactions. VoC programs may include a number of different elements, with AI increasingly providing a means to automate and analyze interactions. Develop a VoC program if you don’t already have one, and focus on continually refining it, especially as AI capabilities continue to improve.

Want to learn more about how to evolve your VoC program and other contact center tools with the help of AI? Watch this video conversation with Robin Gareiss, principal analyst and CEO at Metrigy, and Amy Roberge, global head of CX solutions engineering at Zoom to find out more. 

Interested in learning how Zoom Contact Center can help future-proof your contact center with innovative AI capabilities and more? Contact us today to schedule a call with one of our CX experts. 

ABOUT METRIGY: Metrigy is an innovative research and advisory firm focusing on the rapidly changing areas of workplace collaboration, digital workplace, digital transformation, customer experience, and employee experience—along with several related technologies. Metrigy delivers strategic guidance and informative content, backed by primary research metrics and analysis, for technology providers and enterprise organizations.