Voice of the Customer – the foundation for business growth

The Voice of the Customer is a key element in business planning and product development, as it helps us better understand what our customers actually want. It is based on this voice that we make decisions about our operations and next steps. There are many different names for this process, such as BRD (Business Requirement Document), but it is essentially about the same thing – understanding the needs of Customers.

Companies want to be able to effectively manage customer expectations and meet their needs, so they are introducing various tools into their system – such as the Customer Journey Map. This tool allows us to better understand the stages of Customers’ interactions with our company and what we can do to provide them with the best possible experience. Every contact with a Customer, whether through a verbal or digital conversation, represents a “moment of truth” for us. This is when we can see if our actions are truly meeting the needs of Customers, or if they need improvement.

An example might be a visit to the Disneyland Resort, where from the moment the customer arrives at the parking lot, he or she experiences attention to detail and care, which influences his or her perception of the quality of service.

How to know the Voice of the Customer?

An often asked question is, “Should the survey be anonymous?” The answer depends on a number of factors, such as customer relationships, culture and organizational maturity. It is important that we identify key customers and try to get a high survey participation rate from them.

What do you think about the average response rate in different industries? In the manufacturing industry, it is usually between 7.5% and 15%. It is important for us to try to get a high response rate from our key customers so that we can make sure that we satisfy our most important customers. We may also consider conducting an MFA (Market Feedback Analysis) in person or during a call to get the feedback we need.

Market Feedback Analysis – MFA

MFA (Market Feedback Analysis) is a process of analyzing market feedback to understand and interpret customer feedback on products or services. Through MFA, companies can assess how their offerings are perceived by customers, identify areas for improvement and understand changing market needs. This process involves collecting feedback from customers, classifying this feedback according to specific categories (e.g., quality, customer service, delivery), analyzing the data, and taking action based on the results. MFA helps companies to make more conscious business decisions and better adapt to market demands.

When asking a client to complete an MFA survey, we can help with the Likert scale, also known as the seven-point Likert scale. This is a type of rating scale used in social studies and surveys. On this scale, respondents are asked to express their opinion on a given issue, assigning it a rating from 1 to 7. Each number on the scale represents the degree of agreement or disagreement with a given statement, question or aspect of the survey.

On a Likert scale of 1-7:

• A rating of 1 usually indicates the lowest compliance or dissatisfaction,
• A rating of 4 is neutral or indicates no clear preference,
• A rating of 7 represents the highest compliance or highest satisfaction.

The 1-7 Likert scale is commonly used in marketing research, customer satisfaction surveys and product or service evaluations. It allows for more subjective ratings than a yes or no scale, while allowing for easier data analysis by using a systematic range of ratings.

It is important for us to analyze the average results and pay attention to the comments, as they provide valuable information about customer opinions. We can also divide the survey into different groups to better understand how customer satisfaction builds in different areas. In this way, we can better identify trends and make more precise improvements.

Finally, MFA should function as a calibration tool so that we can understand where there are differences between Customers’ assessments and our own self-assessment. This allows us to better understand our clients and adjust our processes to meet their needs.

SIPOC Diagram

The SIPOC diagram is a tool that helps to understand and define business processes by identifying the key components of a process.

• Supplier – this is the entity or source that provides the data, materials or information needed to start the process. It can be either an external or internal supplier, depending on the nature of the process.
• Input – this is anything that is needed to start the process and comes from the supplier. This can be materials, information, data or other resources that are needed for the process.
• Process – this is the actual process where inputs are transformed into outputs. It is the central part of the SIPOC diagram, where the main business activity takes place.
• Output – is the result or final outcome of the process. Outputs are the products, services or information that are generated as a result of the process.
• Customer – the customer is the entity that receives the outputs of the process. This can be an external customer, such as the ultimate consumer of a product or service, or an internal customer, i.e. another department within the organization that uses these outputs in a further process.

The SIPOC diagram allows you to understand the entire context of a process, identifying its key elements and the relationships between them. It is useful in the context of process definition because it allows you to clearly identify who is providing the data or materials, what are the required inputs, how the process itself proceeds, what are the results, and who are the ultimate beneficiaries of the process.

In terms of managing internal and external customers, a SIPOC diagram can help you identify what internal customers expect from a particular process. By including the Customer as one of the key elements of the diagram, you can better understand what the requirements and needs of the internal audiences of the process outputs are, and how to adjust processes to meet those expectations.
In this way, the SIPOC diagram can be a useful tool for both defining business processes and managing customer expectations, both internal and external.