Definition:
Voice of Customer (VOC) refers to the opinions of users about the functions and characteristics of a company’s goods and services.
Voice of the customer (VOC) is a term used in business and information technology (through ITIL, for example) to describe in depth the process of capturing a customer’s expectations, preferences, and dislikes. Specifically, the voice of the customer is a market research technique that produces a detailed set of wants and needs, organized into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritized in terms of related importance and satisfaction with current alternatives.
Voice of Customer Studies
Voice of the customer studies usually consist of qualitative and quantitative research. They are usually carried out when any new product, process or service design initiative arises in order to better understand the customer’s wants and needs, and as the primary key to defining new products and setting detailed design specifications.
The VOC implementation process
Much has been written about this process, and there are many possible ways to gather the information – focus groups,individual interviews, contextual research, ethnographic techniques, etc., but all involve a series of in-depth structured interviews, which focus on customer experiences with products or alternatives within the category under consideration. Extracted needs statements are organized into a more user-friendly hierarchy and then prioritized by customers.
It is critical that the core product development team is involved in this process. They should be the ones who lead the way in defining the topic, designing the sample (i.e., the types of clients to include), generating the discussion guide questions, whether conducting or observing and analyzing the interviews, and extracting and processing the necessary statements.