Voice of the Customer

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In the product design world, Voice of the Customer research is typically the first step.  The goal is usually quite simple:  Identify the pain points that customers have.  These might range from specific features or limitations of your products to some difficulties that might arise when doing business with your firm.


We use the term Voice of the Customer in its broadest possible meaning.  While many would argue that a "true" Voice of the Customer study requires qualitative input from a panel of customers -- often-times the highest-valued customers -- we believe that the key distinguishing characteristic of a Voice of the Customer study is the goal of getting feedback from customers regarding their pain points at various touch points in the process of doing business with you..  Yes, qualitative interviews with customers is an effective means of collecting Voice of the Customer data, but we don't believe that it is the only way.  Some other mechanisms that you might consider using to collect some Voice of the Customer data include:
  • Your customer satisfaction or Net Promoter Score surveys might indicate areas where you have some problems, especially if the data are sufficiently granular to point you to specific touch points. 
  • Internal process and work flow mapping might very well indicate process choke points that, if simplified, would simplify your customers' journey while making a purchase.
  • If you are a web-enabled business, you probably have considerable data regarding what steps in the purchase process take your customers a long time to complete, and where customers are most likely to abandon a purchase.
The point is that you may already have much of the data that you need to begin the process of improving your offerings and your way of doing business.  Call or email us to discuss the issues that you and find out how we can solve those problems.