If you ask people in almost any organization, they will tell you they know what their customers want and that they do a very good job of delivering on those wants. Yet do we ever get beyond basic requirements?
All customers want good quality, but what does that mean to them? And customers want on-time delivery, but again — how well do we know their definition of “timely”? If we understand what customers are expecting from us, then why do organizations continue to be plagued with customer complaints and having to correct mistakes? We find that listening to and hearing what the customers are telling us are often two very different things. Listening to the voice of the customer is not as easy as one might think.
The voice of the customer (VoC) is a common term used today to describe the painstaking process of capturing customers’ expectations, preferences, and aversions. It is often referred to by organizations, but few ever clearly define its meaning. Specifically, VoC is an unambiguous process that produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs, organized into a ranked structure, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current products and services. It is a systematic approach for identifying and incorporating the needs of customers from actual customer experiences. It allows an organization to understand the customers’ real perception of their products and services, how well they deliver on promises to customers, and to utilize this information to improve products, services, and the processes involved in creating them.
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