If you can sign-up for a free account with SurveyGizmo.com or SurveyMonkey.com, then you can create a simple yet customer service enhancing voice of customer program.

Defining a Voice of Customer (VOC) program

Simply put, a VOC program is surveying your customers on a regular basis to find out just what they think of your brand. The key is to gather data that is quantifiable so you can easily track how you are doing over time.

Using a Net Promoter Score (NPS)

For the purpose of this post, you just need to know that the NPS gives you quantifiable data about how loyal your customers are. For a more in depth explanation of the Net Promoter Score, read the Wikipedia article or this article from Net Promoter.

With your shiny new survey account, create a new survey with just two questions.

  • Question #1: How likely are you to recommend (Insert Brand or Product) to your friends or colleagues? (1 being “Not at all likely” and 10 being “Extremely likely”)
    Answer Choices: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  • Question #2: Why did you give us the score you did on the prior question?
    Answer Choice: Make it an open ended or free response question

Then send the survey out within one week of having served your customer. Expect only about 5-10% of recipients to actually fill it out.

What to do with the survey results

On a set frequency (like once a week or month), take the percentage of people that rated you a 9 or 10 and subtract the percentage of people that gave you a 0 to 6. That score tells you how loyal your customers are. Compare scores over time to determine if loyalty is going up or down.

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The second question gives you qualitative data about your brand that helps you understand why people are or aren’t loyal to you.