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chad_horenfeldt_c2ba52
chad_horenfeldt_c2ba52
Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
December 30, 2016
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Voice of Customer Survey - looking for tips and best practices

  • December 30, 2016
  • 6 replies
  • 190 views
Hi Everyone - we're kicking off a VOC initiative at my company. I participated in this at a previous company so I'm familiar with the concept but was looking for any advice that the CS community can provide. I d also love to see examples of questions that you used.

Thanks in advance!
    Best answer by jennifer_richard
    Hi Chad-  

    We've just extended our NPS survey program to be a NPS + VoC/C-SAT survey program.  We've started with questions regarding:
    • Implementation Services (3 questions)
    • Support (3 questions)
    • Customer Success (2 questions)
    • Product specific questions (3-5 questions per product - we have multiple products) - these are about satisfaction however were put together with our Product Management department with the hopes to drive and/or prioritize feature enhancements based on the answers to these questions.  We are hoping to create a single survey and be able to show only relevant questions based on customer ownership however that is dependent on Gainsight adding this to their roadmap.  There is is a post on this within this same category.
    Questions referenced above are mostly phrased in the "How satisfied are you with..."  Some questions are Yes/No including once asking if they would be willing to be a reference(ultimate test!).

    Hope that helps some.  Happy to give more details, should you need/want.

    Jennifer

    6 replies

    darkknight
    darkknight
    Expert ⭐️
    December 30, 2016
    Hey Chad - I'm not responsible for VoC at our company, although I did work with the team a bit in rolling it out.  I came across this article recently on LinkedIn which I found had some good insights:  http://labs.openviewpartners.com/net-promoter-score/#.WGbkQ7YrK9Z

    I have been on the receiving end of NPS surveys before, and my #1 suggestion is keep it simple.  No more than 1 or 2 questions because people will tire and give up if it's too long.  Really, you can pretty much learn where a customer stands simply by asking "Would you recommend [Insert Company Name] to a friend or colleague?" and maybe including a free text field allowing them to add context.

    If it's in the Detractor range, you know you need to follow up in a manner appropriate to that segment (i.e. High Touch gets more personal follow up to determine cause of the score, lower touches an automated process.).  If it's in the Promoter range, you have potential for an advocate there to be nurtured.  

    No real need to clutter up the survey with "How would you rate THIS?" and "How would you rate THAT?"  Some people may abandon the survey midway or simply delete and refuse to respond if it appears it will take too much time.

    Just my 2c
    Jeff Kirkpatrick
      chad_horenfeldt_c2ba52
      chad_horenfeldt_c2ba52Author
      Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      January 3, 2017
      Thanks - Looking for more than just NPS though. Good advice!
      darkknight
      darkknight
      Expert ⭐️
      January 3, 2017
      Ah sorry - when you said list of questions I just assumed.
      Jeff Kirkpatrick
      dan_ahrens
      dan_ahrens
      Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
      January 3, 2017
      Hi Chad, outside of email based surveys and person directed followups, some other initiatives to consider that I've seen used to good effect are:
      • Customer Advisory Boards - this can be "one size fits all" or if your product has enough varied use cases, you might have a CAB for Enterprise, another for Mid-Market and another for your low touch segment. Getting input and sharing the vision is a powerful way to ensure the customer's voice is heard
      • Customer on-sites - As logisitics permit, plan on inviting one of your customers to visit one of your offices (ideally where there are a large number of folks who usually aren't customer facing, like engineering) and speak to the group about their company and how they use your product. Hearing praise, feedback and pain points directly from the customer to the team members building the solutions can be a memorable way to ensure teams build 'customer forward' solutions
      VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint
      jennifer_richard
      jennifer_richardAnswer
      Helper ⭐️
      January 23, 2017
      Hi Chad-  

      We've just extended our NPS survey program to be a NPS + VoC/C-SAT survey program.  We've started with questions regarding:
      • Implementation Services (3 questions)
      • Support (3 questions)
      • Customer Success (2 questions)
      • Product specific questions (3-5 questions per product - we have multiple products) - these are about satisfaction however were put together with our Product Management department with the hopes to drive and/or prioritize feature enhancements based on the answers to these questions.  We are hoping to create a single survey and be able to show only relevant questions based on customer ownership however that is dependent on Gainsight adding this to their roadmap.  There is is a post on this within this same category.
      Questions referenced above are mostly phrased in the "How satisfied are you with..."  Some questions are Yes/No including once asking if they would be willing to be a reference(ultimate test!).

      Hope that helps some.  Happy to give more details, should you need/want.

      Jennifer
        chad_horenfeldt_c2ba52
        chad_horenfeldt_c2ba52Author
        Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
        January 24, 2017
        Thanks Jennifer!
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