A 5-star experience makes customers 2.9 times more likely to trust your business and 3 times more likely to recommend it. But how do you consistently deliver that level of excellence? It starts with understanding what your customers think, feel, and expect on a deeper level.
The best way for small business owners, multi-location operators, and marketing professionals to build this deep understanding is with voice of the customer research. By researching what your customers have to say, you can build a better understanding of what your customers like and dislike, instead of relying on gut feelings or a small sample size of your biggest fans.
This guide breaks down eight powerful VoC research methodologies designed to help you uncover actionable insights, sharpen your strategy, and create experiences that keep your customers coming back.
What is a Voice of the Customer Program?
A Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is a systematic process where businesses collect customer feedback and transform it into actionable steps to improve products, services, and the overall experience.
VoC programs focus on collecting feedback from multiple channels — like surveys, social media, and online reviews — and turning that feedback into meaningful improvements. Here’s how a typical VoC program works:
- Collect feedback: Gather opinions and experiences through tools like surveys, social listening, and customer support interactions.
- Analyze insights: Look for patterns, trends, and common themes to understand what matters most to your customers.
- Take action: Use those insights to make changes that improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Keep improving: VoC programs are a continuous cycle of collecting data, finding insights, improving, and repeating. As your program evolves, don’t be afraid to tweak your methodologies to get even better results.
For a deeper dive into how VoC programs work and why they’re essential, check out our guide: Voice of the Customer (VoC): A Complete Guide to Mastering Customer Feedback Analysis.
Why is VoC Research Important?
Voice of the Customer (VoC) research is important because it is the best way to get a well-rounded and comprehensive picture of what your customers are saying about your brand right now. By investing in VoC research, you can improve customer experiences, increase loyalty, and even attract new business.
Here are three key reasons why VoC research is essential:
- Increased spending Enhancing overall customer experience (CX) doesn’t just boost satisfaction — it drives measurable financial gains. McKinsey found that strategies improving customer satisfaction by at least 20% can increase cross-sell rates by 15% to 25% and lead to customers spending 5% to 10% more with your business.
- Drives loyalty: According to Calabrio, 97% of consumers say their experience with a brand’s customer service directly impacts their decision to remain loyal. Learn what pain points customers experience, plus what outcomes lead to happy customers, to improve your customer service and foster long-term loyalty.
- Aids innovation: VoC data helps you identify areas for innovation by highlighting customer preferences and expectations. This means your teams can focus sprints on features and changes that will make the biggest impact on your customers.
8 Voice of the Customer Research Methodologies
Voice of the Customer research can take many forms, each offering unique insights into how your customers think, feel, and behave. From tried-and-true methods like surveys to innovative approaches like predictive analytics, the right mix of methodologies ensures you’re capturing a complete picture of your audience.
1. Customer Surveys
Customer surveys are questionnaires that help businesses gather insights directly from their target market. They’re designed to uncover opinions, preferences, and experiences related to your products, services, or overall brand.
Surveys are incredibly versatile, making them valuable for any business. Whether you’re testing a new product, evaluating a recent experience, or gauging reactions to promotions, surveys provide clear, targeted data that can be analyzed at a later date.
How to Use Surveys Effectively
Design your surveys to address a specific question you want to answer about your customers’ experience. For instance, a local coffee shop might use an online survey to understand what regular customers think about their new menu items.
Questions like “What seasonal flavors do you prefer?” or “What is your new favorite item and why?” can guide how your shop could handle future seasonal promotions, keying in on the kinds of offerings your customers actually want.
Other tips to consider when designing a survey include:
- Keep surveys concise and focused so customers are more likely to complete them.
- Try to engage a wide range of demographics with your survey.
- Include a mix of open and closed questions for a variety of data.
- Use electronic surveys through email or on your website for quicker data analysis.
- Use a tool like Chatmeter to analyze open questions so you can better understand your customer’s feelings.
2. Customer Interviews and Focus Groups
Customer interviews and focus groups allow you to go beyond quick answers and dive into what your customers truly think and feel about your product or service. Uncover why they love (or don’t love) certain parts of your business, what challenges they face, and what they’d like to see improved.
While surveys give you a wide range of feedback, interviews and focus groups help you dig deeper. They’re perfect for learning more about your customers’ experiences or testing out ideas before making big changes.
How to Use Interviews and Focus Groups
Start by thinking about what you want to learn. For example, a neighborhood fitness studio might invite members to a small focus group to chat about their favorite classes and what could make them even better. Questions like, “What do you enjoy most about our classes?” or “What would make your experience even better?” can spark great ideas for improvement.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when planning an in-depth interview or focus group session:
- Invite a mix of participants to get diverse perspectives from regulars, occasional customers, and even those who are no longer customers of your business.
- Ask open-ended survey questions to encourage detailed, thoughtful answers that can take you in surprising directions.
- Create a relaxed environment where customers feel comfortable sharing honest feedback.
3. Live Chat Analysis
Live chat analysis reviews customer conversations from your website’s live chat tools. This method helps businesses focus on the underlying reasons why negative customer experiences are happening in the first place.
For example, an online clothing retailer might notice that lots of their live chat inquiries are about delayed shipments. While resolving each chat addresses the immediate issue, analyzing these conversations could reveal a recurring problem with the shipping partner. By identifying and addressing the root cause, such as switching carriers or improving delivery timelines, the retailer can reduce customer frustration and improve overall satisfaction.
How to Use Live Chat Analysis
Live chat analysis works best when you focus on areas where customers seem confused, frustrated, or repeatedly ask for help. Analyze these patterns to uncover underlying causes, whether it’s unclear instructions, product issues, or gaps in service.
The best way to get the most out of live chat analysis is by using a tool that can analyze customer sentiment. These tools can help you quickly identify trends, track positive and negative sentiment, and prioritize improvements with the biggest impact on your customers’ experience.
4. Social Media and Online Communities
Social media platforms and online communities are some of the largest sources of real-time customer feedback on the web. Whether it’s a review on Facebook, a comment on Instagram, or a discussion in an online forum, these channels give businesses direct access to what customers say about their products, services, and overall experiences.
Monitoring these conversations helps you stay connected to customer sentiment, identify trends, and respond quickly to concerns or praise.
How to Use Social Media and Online Communities
Start by regularly checking your brand’s mentions, hashtags, and tags on social platforms. Use a tool like Chatmeter to look for recurring themes in feedback — whether it’s complaints, praise, or suggestions.
[Image of Chatmeter’s Social Dash]
Once you’ve got a tool parsing through all of the data, be sure to make the best use of it by:
- Responding promptly to customer comments or reviews to show you’re engaged.
- Tracking sentiment trends over time to understand how customers feel about your brand.
- Addressing recurring issues highlighted in comments or discussions.
- Amplifying positive mentions by sharing customer praise or even repurposing it in your marketing materials.
- Focusing on sites where your customers like to hang out, whether that’s LinkedIn or TikTok.
5. Online Reviews
Online reviews capture the unfiltered opinions of customers who feel strongly about your brand — whether positively or negatively. When people have an exceptional experience or encounter a frustrating issue with your business, they’re likely to share their thoughts on platforms like Google, Yelp, or Bing.
Engaging with these reviews — by reading, responding, and learning from them — is one of the most effective ways to understand your customers’ needs and expectations.
How to Use Online Reviews
Start by signing up for all of the most important directories in your niche (to find the most popular ones right now, check out our ultimate business directories guide).
Next, start tracking sentiments and keywords in reviews across these major platforms so you know what customers are saying and how their opinions change as you release new updates, products, or services. You can do this manually with a spreadsheet, but it would be far easier to use a tool like Chatmeter, which monitors multiple review sites for you.
With Chatmeter, you get a tool that:
- Analyzes customer sentiment to uncover trends in feedback.
- Notifies you of new reviews so you can respond promptly.
- Tracks changes in your review ratings over time to measure progress.
- Creates AI-powered responses to customer reviews.
6. Website and App Behavior Analytics
Website and app behavior analytics tracks data like page visits, click patterns, time spent on pages, and in-app actions so you can understand how your customers interact with your apps or websites.
This method is especially useful for improving user experience and optimizing your platforms to align with customer needs. Analytics can reveal what content or features engage users, where they drop off, and what drives conversions so you can optimize your platforms for even greater engagement and sales.
How to Use Website and App Behavior Analytics
Start by setting up tracking on your website through a tool like Google Analytics. Once this is done, decide what you want to learn about your customers and how they interact with your site. For instance, you might want to know which pages people read before they sign up for a free trial of your program.
With Google Analytics, you can:
- Set up conversion tracking to monitor sign-up completions.
- Use the Behavior Flow Report to visualize the paths users take through your site before reaching the sign-up page.
- Analyze landing pages to see which pages bring in the most traffic that leads to sign-ups.
- Monitor drop-off rates on key pages to identify where users lose interest or abandon their journey.
With this data, optimize high-performing pages to convert more visitors and improve weaker pages that may be losing potential customers. Some ways of improving a page could include speeding it up, adding high-quality images, improving your CTA, or adding content that is more helpful to your readers.
7. Transactional Data and Predictive Analytics
Transactional data refers to the records of customer interactions, such as purchases, returns, or payments, while predictive analytics uses this data to forecast future behaviors and trends. Together, they help businesses identify patterns, understand customer preferences, and anticipate future needs.
This method is particularly effective for creating personalized experiences and optimizing inventory, pricing, and marketing strategies. By leveraging transactional data alongside predictive analytics, you can make proactive decisions that meet customer expectations and improve operational efficiency.
How to Use Transactional Data and Predictive Analytics
Start by gathering and organizing your transactional data into clear categories, like purchase history, cart abandonment rates, or subscription renewals. Then, define a specific goal for your analysis, such as predicting which customers are likely to churn or identifying the best time to promote a product.
To achieve this, you should:
- Analyze historical purchase data to identify trends, such as peak buying times or popular product bundles.
- Use predictive models to forecast customer behavior, like the likelihood of repeat purchases or the success of specific promotions.
- Monitor patterns in returns or cancellations to improve product descriptions or customer service policies.
- Segment customers based on their buying habits to create targeted marketing campaigns that drive engagement.
8. Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Effort Score (CES)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Effort Score (CES) are two key quantitative metrics for understanding customer satisfaction and loyalty. NPS measures how likely customers are to recommend your business to others, providing insight into customer retention and overall brand perception. CES evaluates how easy it is for customers to complete a specific action, like making a purchase or resolving an issue, highlighting potential friction points in their experience.
These metrics are both derived from simple surveys you’ll prompt your customers to take at key points in the buyer’s journey and can be implemented through a variety of tools or plugins. This makes them simple to implement yet powerful in identifying areas for improvement and gauging the impact of changes you make over time.
How to Use NPS and CES Effectively
Start by integrating these surveys into your customer journey. NPS is best sent after a major milestone, like a purchase or service interaction, while CES works well after customers complete a specific task, such as contacting support or checking out online.
To use these metrics, you can:
- Send NPS surveys via email with the simple question: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
- Follow up on NPS scores by asking detractors what you could improve or promoters what they love most about your brand.
- Use CES surveys to identify friction points in processes, such as billing or product setup, and prioritize simplifying those experiences.
- Track both NPS and CES over time to monitor trends and see how your efforts to improve are impacting customer sentiment.
How Do You Use These Methods to Create a VoC Strategy?
Developing a comprehensive Voice of the Customer (VoC) strategy involves systematically collecting, analyzing, and acting upon customer feedback from several of the above channels so you have a good picture of your customers.
Now that you understand VoC data collection, you might be wondering how you’re supposed to use it to create an actionable strategy.
You don’t want to pick all your data from one source, but you also don’t need to do all of them. Instead, pick three or four based on the data you have, the customers you’re trying to reach, and the tools you already have in your tech stack.
For instance, an ecommerce company might choose to use a mix of live chat analysis, website analytics, transactional data, and reviews so they have all the information they need to optimize their customers’ online experience. On the other hand, a coffee shop might be better served by using social media, reviews, and customer surveys to get a better sense of what their customers are saying about their business.
Here’s how you can use the previously discussed methods to create an effective VoC strategy:
- Define clear business objectives: Identify specific business questions you aim to answer through customer feedback, such as understanding key pain points in the customer journey or determining factors influencing customer loyalty.
- Select appropriate feedback collection methods: Choose the most effective methods from the ones we’ve discussed — such as surveys, social media monitoring, or transactional data analysis — based on your objectives and customer touchpoints.
- Enhance data quality: Ensure the feedback you collect is recent, relevant, accurate, and representative of your diverse customer base.
- Implement advanced analytics: Use tools like Chatmeter’s Pulse to perform sentiment analysis, identifying trends and emotions in customer feedback.
- Translate insights into actionable strategies: Develop specific action plans to address identified issues or capitalize on positive feedback.
- Monitor and refine your VoC program: Be prepared to adjust your approach based on evolving customer feedback and changing business objectives.
For a more detailed guide on refining your VoC analytics strategy, refer to our article, Voice of the Customer Analytics: 6 Steps to Better Customer Insights.
By systematically applying these methods, you can develop a VoC strategy that not only captures the true voice of your customers but also drives meaningful improvements in their experience with your brand.
Perfect Your Voice of the Customer Research
Building a successful VoC strategy is about collecting the right data, understanding it, and acting on it. While it’s possible to manage some of this process manually, the sheer volume and variety of customer feedback can be overwhelming. That’s where tools like Chatmeter come in.
Chatmeter streamlines every step of your VoC strategy, helping you:
- Monitor feedback across channels: Whether it’s online reviews, social media mentions, or survey responses, Chatmeter consolidates all customer feedback into one platform, saving you time and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
- Analyze sentiment and trends: Chatmeter’s sentiment analysis tools let you quickly identify how customers feel about your brand and spot recurring themes or trends that need attention.
- Track performance over time: With dashboards and reporting features, Chatmeter helps you measure the impact of your improvements and track changes in customer sentiment.
- Respond proactively: Chatmeter alerts you to new reviews or mentions so you can respond quickly and show customers their voices are heard.
If you’re ready to learn more about your customers, consider signing up for a demo of Chatmeter to see how our suite of tools can help your business grow through online reputation management.