Insights | Customer Experience

Closing the Loop: Turning VoC Data into Actionable Customer Experience Insights

Most companies collect VoC data, however many fall short on turning it into actionable insights to improve CX

Author: Luis Martinez

 

The benefits of focusing on customer retention and improving the customer journey are well researched. According to Bain and the Harvard Business Review just a 5% increase in customer retention can increase company revenue by 25-95%. Likewise, improving the customer journey has been found to lower the cost to serve by up to 20%.

If growth and efficiency are important to your business, then it may be time for a more focused look at your organization’s approach to customer experience. Eighty-five percent of organizations will collect experience data in one form or another, package it up into various reports and dashboards, but many will find the data does not impact experiences or business outcomes.

Capturing this data to make informed business decisions based on customer feedback and expectations — as opposed to manager and executive perception — is at the heart of a successful customer experience (CX) program and is a gateway to being a truly customer-centric organization. CX analytics bridges the gap between your customer data and powerful insights about your business and customers. The results are relevant and actionable information that will drive value for your customers and improve brand trust and loyalty.

 

What is the Right VoC Data Set?

Voice of the Customer (VoC) data sets can come from a variety of sources, but all represent how to measure the employee and customer journey, their perceived level of effort, and satisfaction. When deciding on the most appropriate data for your organization there are a few important considerations to keep in mind.

First, the data must be from a robust data source, with clear feedback from a large enough sample of customers that we can be confident it reflects real trends. It is also important to measure all the touchpoints along the customer journey. This provides a holistic view of their experience, allowing different patterns, themes, and interdependencies to emerge.

With the myriad of CX metrics available, it is important to consider which are best aligned with the organization’s broader brand promises, values, and goals. What is measured should reflect the company’s top-line goals.

For Example:

Goal: Increase Revenue 

  • Action: Reduce Customer Churn
    • Metric: Customer Turnover %
  • Action: Increase Customer Retention
    • Metric: Customer Lifetime Value
  • Action: Improve Upsell and Cross-sell
    • Metric: Total Revenue per Unit, Revenue per Product Line
  • Action: Increase Customer Loyalty
    • Metric: NPS score

Goal: Decrease Costs 

  • Action: Reduce Employee Churn
    • Metric: Employee Turnover %
  • Action: Optimize Marketing Spend
    • Metric: Conversion Rate
  • Action: Reduce Warranty & Recovery Claims
    • Metric: Warranty Claims %

Aligning your data collection with business goals ensures that the results are actionable and relevant to stakeholders.

Additionally, consider both solicited and unsolicited data sets to gain a holistic picture of your customer’s experience. This also helps mitigate some of the drawbacks with survey data which often have low response rates of 5% – 10%. These considerations will ensure you are providing a comprehensive view of how your organization is perceived by customers and employees alike.

 

Image showing the two types of VoC Data Sources: Solicited Data and Unsolicited Data

Turning  VoC Data into Actionable Business Cases

Creating a strong business case will bring your CX program to life, empowering executives, stakeholders, and employees to better understand how the data is being used and how to act on it.

For Example:

Customer churn is one of the biggest impacts to business growth.  Our example company saw increased dissatisfaction and churn in their customer base. They validated the feedback with data from their CSAT and Retention report.

In digging into the data deeper, a particular customer segment had been negatively impacted by a poorly tested product upgrade, causing a 2% decline in retention which equated to $50 million loss in CLV. To rectify the issue, the rollout process was changed to include new testing, communication, and training which directly increased their CSAT scores, improved churn by 3%, and recaptured lost revenue.

Many organizations capture VoC data but fall short in making it actionable. Telling the story of CX Analytics, relevant to your specific use case, can be a critical tool in socializing the actions necessary to drive improvements. This is especially true for CX, as typically these changes impact many levels of the organization — from executives to managers and supervisors.

 

[Read More: Customer Experience Analytics: 5 Steps to CX Value and ROI]

 

Closing the Loop with Customers

A formal CX Closed Loop Program establishes a repeatable process by which customer feedback is captured and actions completed.

This can include triggering a communication alert to stakeholders within the business who are accountable for conducting “closed loop activities”, such as outreach to customers to respond to negative feedback or to reinforce positive experiences. Finally, management can review aggregate data and coach their teams, recognize their wins, and discuss areas of improvement.

These discussions can only happen when your CX program is delivering insights that are truly relevant to stakeholders. In this approach it is essential that the team members, including executives, understand their roles and actions in a VoC program, so they can take effective action on the data.

This process naturally includes various communication loops both internal to your organization and externally to your customers.

 

Image Showing the feedback loops (internal for an organization vs External loops with customers)

 

Having a closed loop structure in place makes it more likely that your VoC data is leading to action as all stakeholders can quickly and effectively gauge customer reactions to products, services, and business decisions and allows an organization to pivot as needed.

 

[Read More: Harnessing a Journey Map to Empower Your Customer Experience Strategy]

 

Driving Business Outcomes

Capturing employee and experience data in dashboards and reports is just the beginning. Ensuring that those data points are aligned to your business goals helps you focus on the changes that make the most impact to your bottom line.

With knowledge of customer sentiment, preference, and behaviors, an organization can turn disparate customer data into relevant, actionable, decision points to drive value for customers, brand trust, loyalty, and meaningful growth for companies. Being a customer-centric organization means CX Analytics sits in the driver’s seat for your business decisions.

Looking to add to your CX Analytics capabilities? Chat with one of our CX experts about your business’s needs.

 

 

 

 

Luis Martinez is a Manager at RevGen, specializing in identifying business improvement opportunities and their impacts on the Customer and Employee experience. He is passionate about empowering our clients to navigate challenges and enabling change.

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