Is the voice of the customer really being heard?
We’ve all had one- the worst public bathroom experience imaginable. The one where the toilet paper has run out, the handwash is dripping in the sink, the bins are overflowing and there is water on the floor. And other unmentionable horrors.
As you exit there is a survey device prompting you to give feedback about your customer experience. And it is here that you vent your frustrations.
While negative customer feedback is known as the Holy Grail of market research for big businesses, the question must be asked- do customers only give feedback if their experience was extremely negative or extremely positive? And if this is true, does this mean that survey results are skewed, or the data collected has any real value?
Why do customers give feedback?
While current theories of survey response behaviour are illuminating, the short answer is- we don’t fully understand response bias. But what we do know, is that customers respond to surveys because:
- it’s a social exchange
- they are motivated by a perceived reward
- they perceive themselves as helpful
- it’s an avenue of communication
- they have a feeling of obligation
- they are predisposed to doing surveys
- they are engaged by the medium
Regardless of their motivation, according to McKinsey and Company, gauging the customer experience is the key to business transformation. Customer experience is an excellent starting point, because it places the emphasis on creating a happy customer and also solves numerous operational inefficiencies, which in turn helps transform a business over time.
Are customers really being heard?
Market research is founded on the understanding that the data which is collected, is only meant to be a representation of the overall customer experience.
Unless data collection methods can quantify how many people experience a service vs how many of those people actually give feedback, we can’t accurately determine the overall engagement rate for any customer feedback survey.
Nor can we pinpoint the precise motivation behind responding to a customer experience survey- and whether those respondents were motivated by extremely negative or extremely positive experiences.
Regardless of potential bias, any data collected can be considered a meaningful representation of the broader customer experience, and by listening to this voice of the customer, businesses can gain actionable insights.
Voice of the customer
‘Voice of the customer’ is an industry term which describes your customer’s feedback about their experiences as well as their expectations of your products or services.
Survey collection tools that capture the voice of the customer are increasingly important in business strategy for companies, as customers now demand more direct engagement from businesses.
When your customers share their voice in real time with your business, they expect you to listen, act and to see evidence of those changes.
Dr Voxx case study: the good vs the bad
While actual client names and data specifics can’t be mentioned for privacy reasons, Dr Voxx clients have listened to over 3 million customer responses in the last year alone, from clients in the UK and Australia.
Across all client industries, there is a general trend of 60- 70% positive responses for the customer experience, independent of survey location e.g. bathrooms, food courts, hotel lobbies- which means the majority of respondents are rating their experience as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’. This demonstrates that when an experience is good, people want to have their say just as much as when they have a negative experience.
And when figures like these are mapped over time, there is an opportunity to see improvements from any follow up actions that have been made by a company. Likewise, the data identifies areas where changes don’t need to made, in which case businesses can focus on other more important customer touchpoints.
At the other end of the scale, a massive upside to receiving negative feedback is typically a 40- 60% reduction in customer complaints from ‘normal’ channels such as phone, email, and social media, with most of these complaints usually around waiting times, carparks and dirty bathrooms.
The customer then has a positive experience giving feedback, as they feel they have been heard, and a business can hone in on the critical reasons for dissatisfaction and determine whether there are commonalities such as time of day, service provider etc.
Dr Voxx says that in their experience, customers really do want you to know when you’re doing well and when you’re not. It is vital that the voice of the customer is heard, if businesses want to gain actionable insights to ensure the best possible customer experience is achieved.
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