If you want leadership to invest in VoC, there’s only one surefire way to get their attention: show them the money.
When I wrote Listen or Die in 2017, I made it clear that proving ROI is the fastest way to gain executive buy-in for VoC.
The best way to do this?
Demonstrate how improving customer experience impacts business outcomes like reducing churn, increasing revenue, and strengthening brand loyalty.
That hasn’t changed.
But AI is helping by providing faster, more precise, and data-driven ways to connect VoC insights directly to business outcomes.
Let’s take a look at how AI is enhancing the ROI conversation for VoC.
AI is Taking the Guesswork Out of CX ROI
Historically, one of the biggest challenges with proving VoC’s value was making direct financial connections between customer experience and business performance.
Executives don’t just want to hear that improving CX should reduce churn or might increase customer loyalty. They want to see hard numbers—how much money the company will gain or lose based on CX decisions.
AI is bridging that gap in three major ways:
1. AI Quantifies Revenue at Risk from Poor CX
In the past, companies estimated how many customers were leaving due to poor experiences. Now, AI-powered VoC tools can predict churn risk with real accuracy.
For example:
- AI analyzes feedback and identifies patterns among dissatisfied customers.
- It then predicts the likelihood of churn for different customer segments.
- Finally, it calculates the revenue impact, showing exactly how much money is at stake if CX issues go unresolved.
This means instead of saying, “If we improve onboarding, we think more customers will stay,” you can say:
“If we fix our onboarding issues, we can prevent 8% of our customers—worth $5.2 million in annual revenue—from churning.”
That’s something likely to get an executive’s attention.
2. AI Proves Which CX Investments Deliver the Highest ROI
Not all CX improvements are created equal.
Some changes—like fixing a frustrating billing process—have a huge impact on retention, while others—like tweaking a website color scheme—barely move the needle.
AI helps companies prioritize CX investments by:
- Analyzing feedback data to determine which issues cause the most frustration.
- Predicting how fixing those issues will impact NPS, retention, and revenue.
- Recommending which improvements will deliver the highest ROI.
Example:
A telecom company with high churn sees that billing complaints are common in VoC surveys. AI shows that customers who complain about billing are 3x more likely to cancel their service.
Armed with this insight, the company invests in simplifying bills and improving billing support. Within six months, churn in this segment drops by 12%, saving millions in lost revenue.
3. AI Turns Customer Feedback into a Revenue Generator
VoC isn’t just about fixing problems—it’s also an opportunity to increase revenue by identifying upsell and referral opportunities.
AI-enhanced VoC programs can:
- Detect promoters (happy customers) and automatically surface them for sales teams.
- Identify cross-sell opportunities based on customer sentiment and behavior.
- Prompt promoters to refer new customers, turning VoC into a lead-generation tool.
Example:
A B2B software company uses AI to analyze VoC survey responses. It finds that customers who give NPS scores of 9 or 10 are 2.5x more likely to refer new business.
The company then automates follow-up emails to these promoters, offering a referral incentive. This simple AI-driven process leads to a 20% increase in high-value referrals.
AI Helps Build the Business Case—But People Still Drive Change
If you have been following these blog posts, you know what’s coming … while AI is making it easier to prove VoC’s value, it’s still up to leadership to act.
Executives need to:
- Use AI-driven insights to make data-backed CX investments.
- Empower teams to act on churn risk predictions and customer pain points.
- Support VoC long-term instead of treating it as a one-time project.
AI can make the ROI of CX undeniable, but the real impact comes from human action!
The Bottom Line
Proving the ROI of VoC is no longer an uphill battle—AI is making the case stronger than ever.
- AI can predict revenue loss from poor CX, putting a dollar value on inaction.
- AI can prioritize CX investments to ensure companies spend resources where they’ll have the biggest impact.
- AI can turn VoC into a revenue driver, generating new business from promoters.
But at the end of the day, ROI only matters if leadership listens and acts.
Get buy-in. Show the numbers. And make VoC impossible to ignore.
How is AI Changing the ROI Conversation in Your Company?
Is AI helping you prove the value of CX and VoC? Or are you still facing pushback from leadership? Drop a comment—I’d love to hear your thoughts!
