The Most Effective Voice Of The Customer Survey To Use Today

You may be asking, what is the voice of the customer (VoC), and how can I use a voice of customer survey to improve my SaaS business? No, it isn’t a cacophony of customers randomly speaking like Revolution 9 on the Beatles White Album.

However, if you can’t make sense of the voice of the customer survey results, it will feel like that.

What is a Voice Of The Customer Survey?

Often shortened to VoC, voice of customer, or voice of the customer, is a method of market research that paints a picture of your customer’s experience with your website or product. Your customers are the best authority on what they want, so using a VoC survey can help you better understand their wants, needs, and expectations.

In this article, here are some of the takeaways you should expect:

• Why the Voice of the Customer survey is important to your SaaS business
• The best checklist for an effective Voice of the Customer Survey 
• The best techniques and methods to get capture the Voice Of Customer in surveys
• 3 clear templates to use for VoC surveys.

Impact of the Voice of the Customer Survey on Business

Why is the Voice of the Customer important? Utilizing VoC to improve your business can help you:

• Make sure your customers are happy with your business
• Understand your clients’ wants and needs
• Find areas where you can improve your clients’ experiences on your website
• Understand what drove clients to your products or services, to begin with
• Potentially lead future product development
• Help you create new outbound lead generation strategies

Listening to the voice of the customer is the best way to address each of these areas. Not only do your customers know what they want in a product or service, but they can also provide the necessary feedback to allow you to provide it. 

Using a VoC survey is a surefire way to get quality customer feedback, because the survey will help your focus stay square on the customer. The survey will follow your customer from the start of their journey to the finish, revealing what made it enjoyable and what might’ve made it better. In addition, a VoC survey can be a valuable tool in leading product development with VoC.

Existing Customer Retention

One of the goals of listening to VoC is to understand customer behavior to make sure they continue to love your product, and remain a customer. A great way to do this is to reach out to your current customers immediately following a purchase to get feedback while their experience is still fresh in their minds. 

Two of the best ways to reach out to customers are through an email, passive button or website/in-app popups. A website or in-app popup will collect information from the customer before they even leave your site, which will make the customer more likely to respond. You could also send an email offering an incentive, such as a coupon toward their next purchase, to encourage them to provide feedback.

Sometimes it is easy to get feedback, sometimes it isn’t. No matter the case, you’ll need to nudge your customers a bit, unless of course your system is fundamentally broken. In such a case, leave no doubt that you’ll be getting hair-on-fire feedback, and that is never pretty.

Negative Reviews

VoC surveys are just as much about collecting negative feedback as positive. In fact, according to Neil Patel, “negative reviews can actually help your business” because they increase the trustworthiness of your site. In addition to helping potential clients, negative reviews can provide your organization with valuable insight into areas where existing customers feel their needs aren’t met.

Getting a Full Picture Of The Customer

A survey is such a beneficial method of customer research because it can provide a well-defined picture of your customer’s experience. To do this, you need to ensure your survey encompasses every aspect of your customer’s journey.

Reaching your customers at multiple touchpoints is the best way to give you the information you need to define your client base clearly. Using a variety of areas to collect data, both on and off your website will provide far more detail than a random sampling of customers.

The Most Effective VoC Survey Checklist Out There

Here are some expert tips to help you achieve your VoC survey goals.

Goal Direction

Have you clearly defined the goal of your VoC survey? The best way to ensure you get the results you’re looking for is to have a clear goal in mind. 

Make It Easy/Simple

A client is more likely to participate in surveys if they’re simple to complete. Presenting the customer with a survey soon after completing their purchase will also increase participation.  

Go For Short Surveys Instead Of Long Surveys

Customers are more apt to take a few seconds to answer two or three close-ended questions than they are to answer open-ended questions. Open-ended questions may provide more insight, but they’re only helpful if clients are willing to answer them. 

Provide Mutually Exclusive Answer Choices

Use as many yes/no or scaled questions as you can. If a client has to spend a lot of time thinking about an answer, they’re more likely to get frustrated and walk away.

Use Both Relationship And Transactional Surveys

Survey your client on how they felt about their overall experience and ask for feedback on customer service, product quality, and ease of use. 

Include Qualitative And Quantitative Questions

A mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions will give you a good picture of your client’s experience. 

Get Creative With Effective One Question-Based Surveys

Asking clients to answer one question is a surefire way to get responses in a timely fashion. This question can be either a closed- or open-ended question.  

Overall Rating

Knowing your client’s overall rating of your website will help gauge how or whether your site is appealing. Adding a section where the client can follow up with more feedback can help home in on where changes may be necessary.

Invite Customers to Elaborate on Yes/No Questions For Further Insight

Last but not least, framing your questions in a yes/no format with the option to elaborate will help customers feel more at ease with completing your survey.

📣 Shameless PSA: when you need a VoC survey tool to literally hear what your customers have to say, have a look at Usersnap. We’ve got voice and screen recordings, as well as microsurveys cookin’ in the kitchen. 📣

Standardized Feedback Templates For any VoC Survey 

Templates often make for a better user experience, so using a voice of customer template can help ensure ease of use for your and your client. Below are just a few templates worth considering.

Customer Satisfaction Template

A customer satisfaction survey can be simple, like the example shown below, or more complex. When it comes to customer satisfaction, though, simple is better. For example, requesting a star rating with the option to elaborate can be completed in under a minute but can provide a wealth of information.

Website Feedback Template  

Using any voice of the customer survey to gain website feedback can go a long way in increasing customer satisfaction (You can use a website feedback widget to collect these). Feedback regarding search functions, ease of use, and product descriptions will show you the areas in need of improvement.

Customer Service Feedback Template 

When a client contacts customer service, the last thing you want is to cause annoyance. However, reaching out to customer service should be quick and easy, so it’s essential to utilize VoC to achieve satisfaction.

Proven Techniques for any Voice of the Customer Survey

If you’re not quite sure what the best techniques and methods are to conduct a voice of the customer survey, here are a few ideas.

Conducting Customer Interviews  

When developing a product or service, the client base should be the main focus. Interviews allow you to interact directly with clients to ensure their needs are being met. Clint Fontanella of HubSpot said it best: “A customer interview allows you to speak to the people that matter most–the ones who buy your product.” 

Before deciding on an interview method, it’s essential to understand the pros and cons of using interviews to gather customer information.

Pros

1. Interviews offer a personal approach.
2. They allow you to build a strong relationship with your customers. 
3. Interviews utilize more open-ended questions, which can provide more detail than a simple survey. 

Cons

1. Interviews take more time to complete. 
2. Open-ended questions take more time to read and can’t easily be fed into a spreadsheet the same way survey responses can.
3. Customers may not want to click links in emails or answer phone calls from unknown numbers.

Social Media

According to Emil Kristensen of Walls.io, social media sites essentially allow you to “turn your followers into your focus group.” In fact, some businesses have built much of their business model on the advantages social media can provide when it comes to VOC.  

Pros

1. Social media provides VoC feedback in real time.
2. Millions of clients and potential clients can be found on social media.
3. Businesses can interact with their clients freely.
4. Businesses can poll clients and potential clients on how they feel about changes or improvements to existing products.

Cons

1. Potential customers will see negative feedback before you’re able to put that feedback to good use.
2. Social media needs to be monitored regularly to ensure frequent customer interactions.
3. Tone of voice can be difficult to interpret online.

Online Surveys On Customer Satisfaction

Online surveys are a quick way to gather customer feedback. The survey can be a simple customer questionnaire that asks yes or no questions. It can be more qualitative in nature, which can provide a more thorough voice of customer analysis. 

Pros

1. Quantitative survey responses can be fed directly into a spreadsheet for sorting and analysis.
2. Surveys are one of the quickest ways to gain and analyze information.
3. Surveys can be automated.

Cons

1. Shorter surveys are more likely to be completed but may not provide as much depth as longer surveys.
2. Customers often click away from a site once their purchase is complete and may not be likely to click links in an email to complete a survey.

Website-Based Behavior 

A client’s behavior on your website is a great way to acquire passive, no-pressure feedback. Internet usage behavior can also offer insight into a client’s location, other internet activity, and interests, which will allow you to provide better service.

Pros

1. The client can be directed toward the product or service that best suits their needs, saving them time.
2. Email promotions can be crafted for the individual customer.

Cons

1. Information mined from location and internet activity might not accurately represent the client.
2. People often go to great lengths to prevent websites from collecting their data.

Online Reviews  

Much like website data, online reviews can provide a wealth of passive user data. Clients often leave reviews of their own accord, but an email prompting clients who wouldn’t typically leave feedback can help direct them toward the appropriate areas.

Pros

1. Reviews are often the first place potential clients will look before making a purchase.
2. Sites like Yelp and Google can provide feedback without direct interaction with the client.

Cons

1. Some companies will pay for reviews, which might skew favor toward a competitor. 
2. It can be difficult to get balanced reviews.

Live Chat 

A live chat feature on your website can provide insight into your client’s wants, needs, and expectations. In addition, live chats can provide valuable information regarding customer behavior and site utilization in real time.

Pros

1. The client can ask questions and have them answered immediately.
2. Problems can be resolved quickly.

Cons

1. Different time zones can make it difficult for some clients to reach representatives.
2. Chat functions must be available on mobile and desktop platforms in order to be most effective.

Data Of Call Recordings  

Data from call recordings can provide insight similar to what you might receive in a virtual or written interview. The main difference is the added benefit of real-time interaction. Not only can the customer share their views with you, but you can also ask follow-up questions to ensure clarity.

Pros

1. One-on-one interaction with customers
2. The conversational format makes getting information a bit easier.
3. Aspects of the conversation such as tone of voice and inflection can add depth to the information that is collected.

Cons

1. Many people are averse to answering calls from unfamiliar numbers.
2. If a call is dropped, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to get the customer back on the phone.

Some Hot Tools For A Voice Of The Customer Survey  

There are a lot of voice of the customer tools available for creating an effective VoC survey. They include but are not limited to:

• Google Forms
• Usersnap
• Typeform
• Question Pro

Google Forms

Google Forms are one of the top information-gathering methods for companies. These forms are versatile, can be any length, and offer various means of interpreting data. They’re also easy to create and use, which will be less work for both your company and the client.

Usersnap 

Usersnap is customer feedback software that can help companies learn to listen to, learn from, and evaluate the customer’s voice. It not only helps you create quantitative and qualitative surveys but also provides on-page feedback and error-reporting button, feedback form etc. Try listening with Usersnap and sign up for a free trial.

Typeform 

Typeform allows you to create forms, surveys, and quizzes that engage clients while also gathering feedback on their experiences. It prides itself on its “one-question-at-a-time” method of creating surveys. In addition, the availability of photo and video libraries as well as custom layouts and themes gives surveys a polished and professional look. 

Question Pro 

Question Pro provides the tools to capture, consolidate, and analyze information gathered from surveys, studies, and social media platforms, among other areas. It also allows you to conduct and analyze market research that can help determine how your voice of customer survey should be crafted. 

Wrapping it all up for the Voice of the Customer Survey

To recap, a VoC survey helps you get direct answers from the people who matter most: your customers. This kind of survey can also provide the voice of customer analytics with qualitative feedback to help improve your business model. 

Using the various voices of customer services and being clear on the voice of customer definition as it applies to your organization are necessary aspects of getting VoC to work for you. With the tools and tips provided here, you will be well on your way to creating surveys that provide a wealth of valuable information to help reach your organization’s business goals.