CX Measurement Is Hot, But It's Not What You Think It Is

Different Purpose, Different Audience

Without a doubt, the job of market researchers is important; it’s just very different than VoC. Plus, the findings from a typical market research study aren’t typically shared across the entire organization, and there’s no expectation of follow-up with individual customers providing the feedback. In fact, customers who provide feedback for market research are anonymous.

What’s interesting is that, in some companies, the head of market research is also responsible for VoC! In Lesson 8, I discuss how this actually makes sense and how market researchers are using VoC to get answers to pressing questions in super-short time frames and tight budgets.

So What is VoC?

Okay, so CX measurement (VoC) is not market research. Then what is it?

Simply put, it’s the process of collecting and acting on customer feedback that was collected during or shortly after a recent experience. And customer feedback is usually identified, not anonymous.

Here's a quick guide on the different types of feedback ranked by their level of connection to VoC, from most to least:

• Transactional surveys provide solicited customer feedback about their most recent experience (also referred to as CEM or CFM, as noted earlier). As the name implies, these surveys reach out to customers during or soon after an individual experience (e.g., visit to store, call to contact center, visit to website).
  
  These surveys are not anonymous, and customers often have an expectation that the company will follow up based on negative feedback provided. This is primarily the type of feedback I am referring to throughout most of this book.
  
  
• Social reviews provide unsolicited customer feedback about a recent experience and are key to a comprehensive VoC program. Gathering feedback from social review sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google Reviews is an essential VoC task. This feedback is especially important in business-to-consumer (B2C) industries, such as hotels and restaurants.
  
  Similar to transactional surveys, customers often expect the company to respond, especially if the social review was negative.
  
  
• Relationship surveys, as the name implies, help companies gauge the strength of their relationship with customers and are often used to get VoC off the ground. Relationship surveys are usually sent to every customer who’s had an experience with the company in a given period—for example, in the past six months.
  
  Questions on a relationship survey will probe into overall customer feelings about a company based on a series of cumulative experiences, rather than a specific or recent experience. They also can include questions about customers’ experience with competing brands and identify gaps compared to these competitors.
  
  Relationship surveys are a great way to start a VoC program by getting a baseline on where you are today. These surveys will also help you ask the right questions for the touchpoints that really matter to your customers and are usually well worth the investment!
  
  
• Market research surveys seek anonymously provided, solicited feedback, typically from a small sample of statistically relevant customers, on key strategic questions. For example, which advertising messages resonate best with a specific audience, or what is the optimal price for a new product?
  
  Market research surveys are usually one-off, meaning that once a company gathers the necessary data, they move on to their next study.
  
  
• Focus groups are a popular way to gauge customer opinion, but they tend to have little or nothing to do with VoC. They are conducted with eight to ten people in a room with a one-way mirror. A moderator asks the group about something specific, such as whether they would consider using a new product, and the responses are recorded as a form of unstructured, qualitative feedback.
  
  Online focus groups are another way to gather qualitative feedback from customers. These are similar to in-person focus groups, except customers join an online forum to provide their opinions.