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5 Ways VoC Data Analysis Can Improve Your Customer Satisfaction
with Groove Life's Mandy Scott
Emily Rosato
August 14, 2024
Today, we’re talking about happiness…customer happiness. How can a great Voice of the Customer program influence things like customer satisfaction?
We reached out to Mandy Scott the Customer Experience Manager at Groove Life. Let’s hear from her about the top 5 ways she uses VoC to improve customer satisfaction!
Here’s Mandy to introduce the topic of this newsletter!:
Table of Contents
Emily Rosato (Hark): You mentioned that VoC has been one of your favorite accomplishments since taking your role in March 2023, why is VoC something that’s important to you?
Mandy Scott (Groove Life): Interestingly, a couple of years into my job at Groove Life, I was beginning to feel a bit stagnant and was hungry to do more in our department. At the time I was working as a part time CX rep but had a random idea to search ‘customer experience titles’ or other roles within the department to see what could be out there. I found what resonated with me the most which was something called a Voice of Customer.
As I read the description all I kept thinking was, this is it! Truly knowing & understanding what the customer is saying is what really matters and so I presented this position to my boss at the time, excited about the possibility that I could be the person bridging the gap between Groove Life and our amazing customers. I was so proud just thinking about representing them to the company and sharing their voice in a way that would make a difference!
Unfortunately that particular position didn’t pan out at the time, which honestly, I understood because it was a bit premature for our company which was still young and growing. However, when I was promoted to CX Manager last March, one of the verticals that I was presented with as part of a long-term high level vision was creating and developing Voice of Customer within the CX department. Of course this lit a fire in me!
What amazed me was how I saw all the pieces fall into place at just the right time. One of my reps who had changed positions to work as our company chaplain returned to our department. I knew instantly Kevin was the one for the VoC role due to his strengths, self-motivation and hard work ethic. He was also skilled in data gathering and already had plenty of experience making him ready to dive right in.
Over the past 15 months, I’ve watched him turn the idea of Voice of Customer into a thriving and valuable role to the company. It’s truly been amazing and I’m so proud of him!
Emily: That’s amazing! Now let’s get into the tips you have for everyone. What are your top 5 ways that VoC data analysis has improved customer satisfaction at Groove Life?
Mandy:
🤝Opportunity to build trust with customers. When we ask customers for their feedback and then follow up with action on that feedback, we are building a relationship with the customer that in time is producing loyalty to the brand. For example, we have an ongoing ‘new idea’ survey that we send to customers when they reach out asking for something we don’t offer. This gives them an opportunity to share their ideas with us as a company. Then when a product, style, or color is released that was mentioned on the ideas list, these customers know that they had a part in this process. They shared their idea and we made it happen!
🧠Opportunity for change. In every interaction with our CX agents, customers receive a survey from Medallia where they can share their experiences with us during their interactions with our brand by giving us a customer score with the option to leave comments - CSAT, NPS, and CES (customer effort score). These comments are real-time feedback and can be used to improve the customer journey when and where necessary. We immediately hear what they love & what they don’t love in direct response to their experience. Customer comments are truly a gold mine for improvement!!
🤸Opportunity to improve. At Groove Life, we strive to hit the mark every time, but sometimes we fall short. With VoC in place, we are able to quickly assess customer sentiment. With every new product launch, promotion, or possibly even a newly onboarded tool, we make sure to analyze all organic customer sentiment which generally comes from Okendo (product review platform), Sprout (social media platform), Gladly (help desk), TikTok, Amazon reviews, etc. This data has been highly valuable in revealing what we did right, what went wrong, and what needs to be improved in the future. We strive for excellence and we use VoC to help us get there!
💸Opportunity to grow the company. When we send out surveys or receive organic feedback from customers, we have the opportunity to proactively share this data before it’s even asked for, providing insights that other departments or leaders would not have otherwise. These insights can be used to make internal processes more efficient, in turn saving company spend, as well as increasing overall profit by improving product quality and customer service. An example of this is when we were trying to make decisions around pursuing the international market. Understanding the international customers’ voice allowed us to have a clearer vision of their expectations which allowed us to make better decisions in the present with a defined plan for the future.
🗣Opportunity to build relationships with other departments. This one has been very dear to my heart! I love my job and working at Groove Life is so much fun! However, like most companies, it’s easy to sometimes operate in silos which makes communication more challenging. Over time, Kevin and I have worked together to build relationships with other department leaders by intentionally setting up meetings with them in order to help them understand what Voice of Customer is and to ensure that they take advantage of our offering to survey customers in an effort to gather sentiment that is specific to their area of expertise so that they can make better informed decisions. As the saying goes, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” So why not share the wealth of knowledge that’s continually being received by our customers and use it to make everyone and everything better!
Emily: Now, how do all of these tools and methods come together at your org to help you see success in understanding your customers better?
Mandy: Continually pulling all of this data together and making it available as real-time feedback, we are 1. able to more clearly define who our customers are and what they really want which makes us more efficient and profitable as a company and 2. Able to solve problems quickly with VoC data and sentiment in one place, allowing us to make necessary adjustments, reducing outreach from customers, minimizing ticket volume and hopefully increasing long-term increasing retention and customer loyalty.
Emily: A huge issue we’ve heard in the CX community is finding ways to advocate for yourself, and make others see the importance of CX…How do you make leadership or other teams care about VoC?
Mandy: RELATIONSHIP! It’s all about taking time to meet with other department leaders, asking them lots of questions about their role, and learning what’s important to them. Then we’re able to share with them ideas on how we can fully support them by offering survey opportunities to gather sentiment the next time they are confronted with a decision in their specific area. It’s taken us some time to get there, but we’re definitely enjoying the fruit of our labor as we now have survey requests coming in from other departments.
As far as leadership’s involvement in VoC, it’s vitally important that every situation or concern is always backed by data. When ongoing customer sentiment is collected & then shared with leadership, this gives them an opportunity to quickly assess and see from a high level what is truly happening
Emily: My last question is a fun one that I ask every leader…In your dream CX world, with no constraints, what is one thing you wish you had to make CX better?
Mandy: Unlimited resources to surprise and delight customers with extravagant gifts and blessings! There’s nothing like wowing a customer but to be able to come through for them with something totally unexpected and generous, like a $500 gift card for groceries or gas would be AMAZING!
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CX Tip of the Week 💡
Build Interdepartmental Relationships
Take the time to meet other teams at your organization even if they don’t directly relate to your day to day job because CX affects ALL aspects of the company, and you can create lasting impacts for everyone! Share ideas, find out what’s important to them, and show them how VoC can help them, too! When everyone comes together, the company does better ❤️
That’s all for today! See you next time, and thanks for chatting Mandy! 🙂
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