WhY Voice of the Customer (VOC)?
Organizations cannot thrive in today's challenging business environment without listening to their customers. Whether the focus is determining customer satisfaction levels with products/ services, using VOC data to develop new products, or ideally using both approaches, consistent use of Voice of the Customer (VOC) principles is a must.
Here is one example of not using VOC principles in the area of New Product Development (NPD). For those of you who have been involved in NPD efforts for quite some time, you are probably familiar with the unfortunate "uh oh" moment when a newly launched product failed to thrive in the market. The shortfall may have been due to changing customer demands. Or, the product may not have functioned as the customer intended. In either case, a lot of money and time was expended for fruitless results... poor sales and ROI. Reasons for the shortfall can be numerous. Perhaps if customer requirements had been captured prior to product development as well as during various intervals of the NPD cycle, a better outcome could have resulted. Referring to existing customer satisfaction data could have helped as well. |
When VOC principles are not utilized, the following additional scenarios can occur:
On the other hand, a thriving VOC program can produce the following results:
When VOC systems are properly integrated into organizations and are consistently utilized, it's a pretty good bet that these benefits will be realized. If you are interested in learning more about our VOC services, contact us! |
...85% of the reasons for failure to meet customer expectations are related to deficiencies in systems and processes rather than the employees. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better."
Dr. W.E. Deming, Father of Quality Evolution