Voice of the Customer (VoC)

Companies are increasingly seeking to maximize the value of their customer satisfaction measurement investment. With customer satisfaction scores "flat lining" with little change from period to period, it is no wonder many companies are taking a serious look at how to get the most out of their customer satisfaction budget. At PeopleMetrics, we take a very different approach to measuring and acting on customer satisfaction feedback. Two of the most important differences are:

• We measure Customer Engagement, not customer satisfaction
  
  
• We help clients focus on taking action on customer feedback, not just aggregate results

With PeopleMetrics Voice of the Customer (VoC) solution, both B2B and B2C companies can take action on client and customer experiences to create engagement, not just measure satisfaction. A brief description of how our approach is different from most customer satisfaction measurement programs is provided below. If you are interested in more information or wish to schedule a demo, please click here.

Measure Customer Engagement, Not Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a nice to have, but does not result in a secure customer. Satisfied customers may be pleased with a recent experience, but often do not have an emotional connection with the company. This lack of an emotional connection often results in customers with high levels of customer satisfaction switching to competitors for reasons such as a minor cost difference or a slightly more convenient location.

On the other hand, Customer Engagement is a must have, and it is used by the best and most successful companies in the world. What does an engaged customer look like? PeopleMetrics has established four characteristics of Customer Engagement:

• Retention:  Engaged customers will spend more with you over their lifetime than with your competition.
  
  
• Effort:  Engaged customers will actually go out of their way to do business with you - even spend more to benefit from your products, service and brand.
  
  
• Advocacy:  Engaged customers spread the good word, making it easier and cheaper for you to attract new customers.
  
  
• Passion:  Engaged customers are passionate about the brand – so passionate that they may even spend time actively promoting the brand to others or defending the brand if others speak negatively about it.
  
  

These behaviors and emotions lead to great results for our clients. In fact, PeopleMetrics has proven the positive correlation between Customer Engagement and business outcomes, including earnings per share, gross margin, and return on investment. To learn more about our latest thinking on VoC, please click here. To learn more about the pitfalls of only considering satisfaction in your measurement program, please see why customer satisfaction is not enough.

Take Action on Customer Feedback, Go Beyond Trend Lines

Every time a customer provides feedback on their experience, companies have the opportunity to use that feedback to improve their business, but some simply "roll it up" to view general trends over time. Unfortunately, a majority of companies focus on aggregate trends rather than empowering managers to take the best actions on customer feedback to improve engagement. While aggregate analyses can be valuable, they are often not actionable to managers who are responsible for affecting the trends.

At PeopleMetrics, we are passionate about helping our clients take the best actions on customer feedback. Our VoC solution is designed to help both B2B and B2C companies and their managers respond in the most effective way to customer feedback. Here are a few highlights:

• Questions Designed for Action: our proven core VoC (B2B, B2C) question sets are designed to enable our clients to take action on specific aspects of the customer experience. Our tracking surveys are short (less than 5 minutes) and enjoyable for the client or customer. For our B2C clients, we often begin with a longer survey (about 10 minutes) designed to identify the specific behaviors required to engage customers. Once analysis reveals the top drivers of customer engagement and standards are developed for each driver, a shorter tracking survey measures the pulse on how well these behaviors are being lived by the employees who serve customers. Results from these tracking studies are often used in incentive compensation plans.
  
  
• Action Alerts: based on individual customer responses to specific questions in the survey, Action Alerts are sent directly to the designated people within the client organization via e-mail immediately after the customer submits feedback. VoC includes five types of Action Alerts - Recover, Grow, Recognize, Improve and Market. While the full range of Action Alerts are most applicable to high-value transactions in the B2B space, more and more B2C businesses are seeing the value in following up on their most important customers' experiences.
  
  
• Action Alert Management: after an Action Alert is sent, a case is automatically created in the VoC Hub and is assigned to the appropriate person who provides updates with regard to progress. This person or a supervisor can then close out cases as appropriate actions are taken. Suggestions are provided on what specific actions will be most effective depending on the type of Action Alert generated. Successful actions are recorded, tracked and shared with the entire organization.
  
  
• Manager Action Planning Tool: largely for our B2C clients, we offer a planning tool that enables managers to identify areas of focus that, if improved, will have the greatest impact on Customer Engagement within their location. This tool includes PeopleMetrics proprietary library of best-practice actions for each question in our core B2C VoC survey and is especially helpful for managers who are incentivized based on Customer Engagement scores.
  
  
• Integration with CRM Packages (e.g., Salesforce.com): we can easily integrate individual level customer feedback into Salesforce.com and other popular CRM packages.
  
  

PeopleMetrics has helped some of the world's most respected B2B and B2C companies take action to improve Customer Engagement, including ARAMARK, Christie's, Lexis Nexis, Signature Flight and Wharton. To learn more about how we can help your company take the right actions to engage clients and customers, please contact us.