5 ways to build a better CX/VOC program

Contact center operations are a marvel to work in, because they are so measurable. Most centers can manage the numbers quite well, but that’s not enough to drive an effective Customer Experience (CX) or Voice of the Customer (VOC) Program. 

The best centers know they must improve their metrics by leveraging their CX/VOC data. Then, they can mitigate service failures, boost loyalty and create more business value. That’s the real end game. 

Here are five ways to  build a better CX/VOC program:

#1: Determine what you do best.

Take an assessment of what your contact center does best, then strategize ways you can duplicate those strengths across other channels. For example, a CX/VOC program customer might tell you how satisfied they are in interacting with an agent, but lament over your self-service options. Their experience needs to be consistent regardless of the channel.

#2: Listen to your customers.

 Most centers record calls, and rate the interaction. Compliance issues aside, is the assessment of the interaction focused on process or on the service the agent is expected to deliver? You don’t need a CX/VOC program for that, but you do need alignment on what is a great customer interaction. The best way to understand what you do best from the customer’s vantage point is with a CX/VOC program. Setting up the right program will open up a wealth of information regarding your customer’s thoughts through structured and unstructured feedback.

#3: Provide rapid service recovery. 

 Often the contact center is the last chance for customers to resolve an issue. Here are two things to keep in mind. First is basic, leverage your ticketing platform. Second, track and respond quickly to time-sensitive customer feedback. This should be part of your customer listening strategy to close the loop due to specific scores/criteria or key words in customer comments in order to be more proactive and regain lost loyalty. Centers that can resolve most customer issues in near real-time stay ahead of service-related issues that could compromise customer recovery efforts and boost loyalty.

#4: Actionable contact center reporting.

 Reporting should be readily accessible, role-based and actionable. Reporting should provide key measures, trends and areas to focus on. This should revolve around improving agent, team and center performance. If you want to build a strong Voice of the Customer program, customer satisfaction and its counterparts (NPS and Customer Effort score) need to be part of the measures.      

#5: Apply learnings.

To build a high-impact CX/VOC program, its critical to see beyond agent or center performance and consider emerging themes potentially affecting the larger organization or brand. Areas like customer effort, first contact resolution and customer sentiment while captured in the contact center, often reach well beyond the “walls” of the center. A CX/VOC program capable of capturing resolution attempts, effort and sentiment of the customer through structured and unstructured feedback makes turning learnings into action much easier.