Using surveys to capture voice of the customer (VOC) feedback has become part of the DNA of most call center operations. While these insights are important, they often fail to provide the full story. To really know what drives perceptions and be able to enact organizational change, innovative leaders apply multi-faceted analytics to VOC plus other datasets. Here are a few easy tips you can apply today.
Tip #1: Look across the end-to-end experience
When a customer thinks about the time and effort needed to solve a problem, they don’t think only about the channel they’re using now … they think about the entire, multi-channel experience. With growing numbers of customers “channel hopping” to find information or resolve issues, it’s more critical than ever to know what’s happening everywhere. Be sure your VOC survey captures insights about what happened before a customer got to the 800# or walked into the store, in case something upstream is broken.
In one of our syndicated studies, 40% of consumers said they had to use two or more touchpoints in their quest for resolution– with satisfaction dropping exponentially the more channels required. Using open-ended questions can help capture valuable input, as well, which then can be mined with text analytics to draw out trends. In a multi-channel environment, successful programs draw insight from learning where customer failure points exist.
Tip #2: Unleash the power of linkages
No VOC program is complete without advanced linkage techniques. Companies hold a lot of information about their customers and the products, services and processes that support them. With all that data, it can be difficult to know what and how to use it effectively. At the same time, surveying in isolation will only reveal the tip of the iceberg.
To see under the waterline, leading practitioners statistically link VOC to other sources like operational data, product mix, billing information, social media content, as well as policy and process data. This enables predictive models and key driver analyses to generate a holistic view of the entire customer experience environment, and uncover relative impacts to performance. And, quantification lends itself well to busy stakeholders who need justifiable reasons for investments.
Tip#3: Empower your front line
Don’t just coach to under-performing agents. If you segment each employee’s strengths against key skills and behaviors, coaching can be customized to each group which will have a better impact over time. Part of coaching should include customer perceptions of their frontline interactions. This can be done very simply by capturing agent identifiers as metadata that ties to survey responses. Many companies already measure VOC at the agent level and incorporate the feedback into coaching sessions.
A more comprehensive approach would add sophisticated analytics to uncover specific behaviors and skills that impact KPIs. Instead of generalized training and feedback suggesting agents “get better,” what agents really need is insights into which skills matter most – plus guidelines on how to exhibit them.
Closing thoughts
While VOC programs create a window for companies to understand customer satisfaction and monitor trends, the real value of each customer voice is what they can help companies learn about themselves. By listening and using the right tools and techniques to analyze, interpret and implement, a standard VOC program can become truly transformational.
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