Voice of Customer -- creating a program

Anita Toth

@Gurdev Anand asked this question in the  Voice of Customer thread  "how does a business take feedback through email, phone conversations, support cases, surveys etc and funnel it into an efficient program?" I'm wondering this too.

What do you do with all this data? 

Tanuj Diwan

There is actualy a CX team for this.

1.They gather omnichannel data at one place

2. Manually tag each of this conversation/feedback into themes, make a glossary/dictionary of topics, sub topics & sentiments for different team members so that they can easily tag new conversations.

3. Run analyses on it to identify top themes for different teams. Generally this is done on number of times a theme occurs with sentiment behind it.

4. Then send monthly, weekly reports of top topics which are trending for particular teams like Product, support etc

5. Then teams decide on priorties and setup action plans.

6. They act and then start measuring these impact of those changes with their most importsnt KPIs.

7. They need all this data at one place to manage this easily, have dashboards and when conversations go upto 10k, 20k a month they dtart using Text & Sentiment solutions for automatic tagging of these themes.

Let me know if this makes sense.

@Nandkishor Tripathi you can add yoyr thoughts too

Steve Bernstein

Depends on the type of outcome you want your VoC program to drive @Anita Toth. I've not seen VoC programs based on mining support data to produce an ROI. That type data could be useful for the product teams to understand end-user concerns, but having been providing VoC programs for our customers for 10+ years we find that the best feedback (that drives rapid financial results/ROI) is representative of buying centers (structured feedback from stakeholders that answers specific questions, such as sentiment, value perception, and other key drivers), coupled with deep-dives into the functional areas (including product) to drive the proper improvements. I've posted elsewhere many tips on how to drive response rates to the desired ~80% so that CSMs get actionable insight into the health and optimal focal areas within their individual accounts, while the rest of the company provides "air cover" and drives profitability through greater efficiencies to reduce CAC and stronger customer relationships  to expand existing customers. IMHO, there are no silver bullets or free lunches, just automation to support the right dialogs that acquire the right data (not just "any" data).  

Nandkishor Tripathi

Thanks @Tanuj Diwan !

We capture data with a focus to change our customer's life to make things easier for them. We listen and take actionable Insights.

As there are so much of data available coming from various channels, we need to create an ecosystem to fully utilize the value of it.

We are in world where experience is the new currency and this is only provided from your customers. 

If we are capturing data and not doing anything measurable we may need a re-look and ask - Why behind capturing data.

Will Pagden

We're still incredibly small but I have a big focus on collecting data. If we start now, as we scale so will those processes and we will have a great VoC program. Currently feedback is stored centrally and it falls to me to review and analyse it. We have just got surveys going out of Gainsight CS and are playing around with in-app surveys in Gainsight PX but that will be dependent on us moving to a user-based login rather than a company wide login.

I do agree with @Steve Bernstein though, I think you can get too granular and review all data available, when actually maybe only 20/30% of the data you have is key to driving success.

Anita Toth

Amazing stuff @Tanuj Diwan and @Nandkishor Tripathi ! With so many channels operating at once, the amount of data can be overwhelming. I know the power of tagging to categorize the data is immensely helpful. 

What tool are you using for the central repository for all this data? Are the tagging features available in it?  

Anita Toth

Awesome stuff @Steve Bernstein. I agree there are no silver bullets. After all, we're dealing with humans who have changing needs, wants and desires. Also, what works today may not work 6 months or a year from now without tweaking.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by 'structured feedback from stakeholders'? Are these interviews with them or surveys or both?

 

Anita Toth

Love that you're getting this program up and going while still small @Will Pagden . It's back to that 80/20 rule where only some of the data collected will be very valuable, while a large majority of it is neutral while a small percentage can be a red herring.

The key is figuring out which is which. 

 

Steve Bernstein

Hi @Anita Toth , Yes, both online and follow-up interviews should be managed through your platform.  I really hate to use the word "survey," although the technology would be similar in the aspect of collecting feedback. Positioning the program with the key stakeholders in your accounts as needing to have them assess their experience and success with you as a vendor/provider, along with a commitment to address with their telling you, is key to making the program work. In B2B a census-based approach with stakeholders is important, and a sampling-based survey approach is something that we typically leave to B2C work. The distinction might seem like semantics but it's critical to position it correctly with customers.

So whatever platform you select (and if you are looking at platforms we'd love to have you look at Waypoints TopBox!) should have appropriate technology to collect the feedback, while also giving you the right abilities to conduct the root cause interviews and manage data from both avenues for your analytics and communication across the company.

Will Pagden

Yup, for me @Anita Toth its all about scalability. What I am looking to do is build out processes that are naturally able to scale with the company. I learn so much from the creation of these programs early on. An example would be today I found that our customer contact data doesnt ingest into our CS platform correctly. Now its much easier to correct 550 contacts than it is 80,000 contacts.

We have a very big vision, and are on track to get there so its important we start early on these plans.

Bradley New

@Will Pagden How are you currently collecting all that data? I know you mentioned Gainsight but are you using another tool to store all of that feedback from your customers?

I'm also on a small team (of 1 person lol) so it would be great to get some insight on this!

Anita Toth

@Steve Bernstein There's a critical distinction between sampling segments of a population for a survey (I'd add in low-touch B2B here) and letting high touch customers know that feedback is a central part of creating a successful outcome and strong relationship. 

That distinction is necessary for best results for both segments.

 

Sebastien Venancio

The process that works for us is mainly 3 folds:

First part is through support cases, where everything is categorized and reviewed regularly by the product team. The CS team have constant access to all cases and are in copy whenever necessary. We have adapted our own product for that.

The second part is through the CSM: We have to conduct regularly a VRCI (Value Realisation Check In) with our customers to ensure that we are driving value and addressing any blocker. At the end of this conversation, we are asking for their CHI Score out of 10 (Customer Happiness Index: "How happy are you with our product"), with a simple follow up question: "What are the top 3 things we can do to increase this score?" It usually open honest and interesting discussions. All of this is stored in Gainsight. We are then reviewing regularly the situation, and escalating when needed.

Final part is mostly automated through our own product again, by listening to public social conversations that can help us understand trends in requests and usage for our own company but also the competition.

Depending on the situation, data is reviewed at any frequency from daily to quarterly and actions are taken accordingly.

Will Pagden

@Bradley New - It stores it all for us in Gainsight, so right now we are reporting on scores received i.e. NPS and CSAT and then we meet regularly (myself, CEO and Product Manager) and review the answers provided. We (or me for now!) aim to close the feedback loop within 24 hours of each response, which is possible based on our size.

Anita Toth

@Will Pagden  How often are you reviewing the answers?

Anita Toth

@Seb Venancio this is fantastic! I like the use of CHI. Are you also collecting NPS or CSAT along with it or is it on its own?

Fascinating with the VRCI -- is this a quantitative measure or qualitative? (I'll admit I hadn't even heard of the term before you wrote it here. I had to look it up to understand what it was.  lol  )

Sebastien Venancio

@Anita Toth We are not collecting NPS or CSAT per se, it is included in our measure of CHI scores. A genuinely happy customer will have no issue being an advocate of our solution. Especially since we are asking for specific, actionable insights to increase his/her satisfaction. We are still using a CSAT measurement for our support team where we send a survey at the end of each case.

As for the VRCI, it's both really, even though we make sure to quantify and track the value we provide in an ongoing way, we are also listening to any kind of qualitative feedback. Obviously, we focus more on the quantification of value, because if you can show a customer that your solution is actually reducing costs or increasing revenue in any way (validated with them of course), churn is always less likely to happens.

So this is a bit off topic here because VRCI are not just a way to capture the Voice of the Consumer, but for us, each VRCI is an opportunity to show that we care about our customers and the impact we make. It also helps us discover and discuss areas of improvement and/or upsells (eg. "Following our implementation of feature X and based on the model we agreed before, we see that it resulted in X$ of cost reduction. Now from our experience and based on an average from similar clients, we know using feature Y in this situation would also provide an estimate of Y$ in revenue. Are you interested in exploring this possibility?"). 

It positions us as advisors and partners to their business, not just a solution provider that could be easily discarded. 

Mike Gospe

Hi Anita, this is a great question and some really good responses. Based on my experience as a marketing strategist and a professional VOC architect and CAB facilitator, I wanted to add a comment, too.

Too often VOC programs feels like a dog pile -- everybody wants to collect every piece of data and pile it on. (Watch out for garbage in, garbage out.) But in the end, very little of it actually gets used. Because of this, I've adopted a very practical, pragmatic approach based on two questions: What do you want to learn? What are you prepared to do with the info you collect?  (Warning: these can be really hard questions for an executive team to answer.) So, before a VOC engine gets ramped up, processes and rules of engagement, and expectations need to be carefully set. If your VOC model is already running, taking time out to conduct an honest cross-functional assessment can be an eye-opening exercise.

I've created a couple of models I use to guide strategic conversations around VOC modeling. Perhaps you'll find these of use.

If you'd like, I'd be willing to schedule Zoom peer group discussion on these models.

Anita Toth

@Mike Gospe This is amazing! There's so much here, I don't know where to start.

1. Thank you so much for adding the models in. It's really helpful to visualize the process.
2. I so agree that clarity is needed right from the start. As someone who helps companies collect proper customer feedback, the first question is always "what's the goal in collecting this data?" and the second question is the same as you wrote -- what do you plan to do with it?  Love this!
3. I would love to be a part of that Zoom call. Given the interaction on the last few VoC posts, I'm sure others would be too. @David Ellin held one on CABs a few weeks back that was well attended. 
   
   

 

Mike Gospe

@Anita Toth You are very welcome! This is the tip of the iceberg, my friend. So many marketers and customer success leaders get overwhelmed by the mechanics, shiny new tech tools, and mountains of data that they lose site of the goal. You need to slow down before you go fast -- when it comes to building a VOC model. Build the model in stages, with shared ownership. I architect VOC models for a living. Happy to be a resource or sounding board at any time.

I'll keep my eyes open on interest for a Zoom peer group discussion. If more people are interested, I'll set something up.

In the meantime, two more resources for you:

From the CAB Resource Center blog: Do you know the voice of your customer?
From the KickStart Alliance blog: How to interview C-suite customers

Enjoy!

M

David Ellin

@Mike Gospe, Let me know if you host a call. I'd like to be included.

John Akbari

@Mike Gospe, interested in attending your zoom call, thanks. 

Chad Horenfeldt

Thank you for sharing this Sebastien. I really like the CHI score approach - especially if the product is the main challenge for your customers.

Samma Hafeez

Did you guys end up organizing a Zoom session?  If not, hope there's still interest! Would love to join as well. @Mike Gospe

Rachel Yockey

@Mike Gospe Thanks so much for your insight - I'd love to attend a Zoom on this topic as well if you're open to more attendees.  Thanks!

Allastair Meffen

Hi Mike...I would be interested in joining a Zoom call as well.

Mike Gospe

Hi All, (2/22/21: I UPDATED THE INVITATION LINK BELOW. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE REGISTERING.)

I'm seeing a renewed interest in my voice-of-the-customer strategy discussion offer from last summer. 

REGISTER HERE:

VOC Strategy & Discussion for GGR members

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqce-ppjkiGtQpbWlXouXjVBeojpyu0y1Z


Date: Wed, March 3

Time: 8:00 - 9:00 am PACIFIC

Free to join.

If you have specific questions you'd like me to address, please post them on this thread.

I'm looking forward to our discussion!

Best,

Mike Gospe

@Mike Gospe This is amazing! There's so much here, I don't know where to start.

1. Thank you so much for adding the models in. It's really helpful to visualize the process.
2. I so agree that clarity is needed right from the start. As someone who helps companies collect proper customer feedback, the first question is always "what's the goal in collecting this data?" and the second question is the same as you wrote -- what do you plan to do with it?  Love this!
3. I would love to be a part of that Zoom call. Given the interaction on the last few VoC posts, I'm sure others would be too. @David Ellin held one on CABs a few weeks back that was well attended. 
   
   

 

If you'd like, I'd be willing to schedule Zoom peer group discussion on these models.

@Gurdev Anand asked this question in the  Voice of Customer thread  "how does a business take feedback through email, phone conversations, support cases, surveys etc and funnel it into an efficient program?" I'm wondering this too.

What do you do with all this data? 

Mike Gospe

Hi Semma, Sorry for the Zoom registration problem. I think I fixed it and updated the link. Please let me know if you continue to have trouble registering. Best,

Mike

Jim Jones

@Mike Gospe I won't be able to make the 3/3 session, but this is a topic I'm super-interested in. Will you be recording the session, and/or do you plan on repeating it in the future?

Thanks!

Anita Toth

Awesome stuff @Mike Gospe.

David Ellin

Thanks, Mike. Looking forward to it.

David

David Ellin

2020 Top 100 Customer Success Strategist

770-853-5115

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidellin

@Mike Gospe This is amazing! There's so much here, I don't know where to start.

1. Thank you so much for adding the models in. It's really helpful to visualize the process.
2. I so agree that clarity is needed right from the start. As someone who helps companies collect proper customer feedback, the first question is always "what's the goal in collecting this data?" and the second question is the same as you wrote -- what do you plan to do with it?  Love this!
3. I would love to be a part of that Zoom call. Given the interaction on the last few VoC posts, I'm sure others would be too. @David Ellin held one on CABs a few weeks back that was well attended. 
   
   

 

If you'd like, I'd be willing to schedule Zoom peer group discussion on these models.

@Gurdev Anand asked this question in the  Voice of Customer thread  "how does a business take feedback through email, phone conversations, support cases, surveys etc and funnel it into an efficient program?" I'm wondering this too.

What do you do with all this data?