Reimagining the Voice of the Customer for 2024

If you’ve read any of my previous blogs or viewed my talks, you know how much I enjoy sharing my coffee shop and barista story. I keep talking about it because I’m fascinated with how a genuine personalized experience can make a difference in our lives. When that coffee shop doesn’t deliver on a genuine or personalized experience, I notice it. And I don’t hesitate to express my disappointment. Think about this scenario in your own experiences — and from the point of view of your customer and from the Voice of the Customer (VoC).

With the internet of things, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data is everywhere. Everything from our smartphones, home security systems, cars and other devices are constantly gathering personal and behavioral data. In this new landscape, how can we reimagine the Voice of the Customer experience in 2024?

Automated Voice of the Customer

By 2024, most interactions and experiences with our favorite brands will be built-in via sensors (physical and/or electronic) to gather feedback in real time. That feedback will loop into big data analytics engines where we can map behaviors and preferences into a personalized consumer journey. If there’s a fraction in this mapped experience, a VoC team will become aware of it and can take actions to resolve it.

Predictive Intelligence 

Brands will continue to collect customer data and feedback from various types of interactions. We’ll learn more about customer buying habits, their usage of products and services, and their social influence. Predictive modeling will allow companies and their VoC teams to scale up observations of consumers and improve their ability to discover fractions in the customer experience.

Consumer journeys are highly personalized and tailored because all feedback and data are fed into those individual consumer journeys. This allows Voice of the Customer teams and brands to address fractions before consumers notice them. Additionally, brands will no longer need to ask the same customer satisfaction questions. This will enhance customer experience with the brand.

Privacy and Security 

With great power comes great responsibility. To build trust in the new system, businesses must respect the fact that their consumers own their data and decide what experiences they want — and with whom they want to share those experiences. While everyone is collecting consumer data, you want to first have their permission to collect their data.

Let customers have control to adjust their preferences when they want to. This will allow you to know when it’s appropriate to use the information for their journey. Know what your customers value and care about — and at which moment in their journeys these experiences occur. This should be built-in as part of your predictive intelligence engine.

Evolution of VoC Teams

In 2024, there will be a need for a Voice of the Customer team, but it will require new skills and high specialization in certain areas.

Data Analysts: The data analytics role won’t just be about simply collecting data and analyzing surveys. It’ll be a combination of data science and psychology. This team will be expected to analyze the data and then correlate it with a set of personalized habits and behaviors.

Personalized Journey Designers: Today, everyone in the VoC space is doing some type of customer journey. By 2024, personalized journey designers will be specialized in the ins and outs of the craft to be deliberate, to understand what customers value and to know their preferences.

Advancing Net Promoter Score (NPS) Systems: NPS is one way to collect customer feedback by asking the survey question: “How likely are you to recommend….” But the NPS system will evolve, creating a corporate culture that enables managing and delivering on the brand promise across all functions. The advanced NPS system will provide instant coaching, highlight challenges, and give a framework to address major opportunities or introduce new services and products.

Blending technology and humans to create lasting and meaningful experiences is a fine art. It’s complex, continuous and intentional — but it’s all vital. Because, at the end of the day, humans are the ones advocating your brand and listening to the Voice of the Customer.

To learn more about how customer experience is changing, check out our webinar “Get personalization right for your customers,” with Genesys CEO Tony Bates and customer experience industry pioneer, Jeanne Bliss. And keep up to date with all CX Day activities online.