7 Strategies to Turn Customer Feedback Into CX Improvement

Sabio identify seven strategies to help CX teams transform customer feedback data intelligence into actions to drive measurable improvements.

Research suggests that despite continued growth of customer feedback initiatives, around eight out of ten Voice of the Customer (VoC) projects still fail.

While organizations clearly recognize the need to understand customer feedback when shaping their customer experience strategies, unfortunately very few actually demonstrate real business value.

Simon Thorpe

“Even though there are plenty of ways to capture the Voice of the Customer, whether it’s surveys, speech analytics or social media analysis, it’s imperative that organizations commit to acting on this intelligence,” said Simon Thorpe, Sabio’s Head of Customer Insight Solutions.

“That’s why closing the feedback loop is so important – indeed it’s estimated that around 11% of customer churn can be prevented by simple outreach. And the more that organizations can do to build engagement into their feedback processes, the quicker they will see their NPS and CSAT scores improve.”

Sabio’s seven strategies for transforming customer feedback initiatives:

1. Work Through the Fragility of Enthusiasm

Executive interest in customer feedback initiatives tends to peak early. This often coincides with a realization that change can be hard and takes time, or when people start actively challenging the data being presented.

CX teams always need to be looking for insights or tactics that can keep stakeholders across the business engaged

2. Combat Spreadsheet Fatigue

Organizations typically spend significant time and resources completing and distributing Excel tabular insight tables with little to no engagement.

If insight updates are failing to command attention, organizations should start to use different techniques

3. Understand the Art of Good Storytelling

If CX teams are struggling to build engagements it’s essential to find effective ways to turn Voice of the Customer (VoC) insight into actions.

That means translating feedback into clear stories that directly address stakeholder concerns, and that enable actions that lead directly to transformation

4. Identify Key Stakeholders

Any CX improvement strategy requires leadership sponsorship; however, it also requires support from stakeholder groups across the business such as Digital, Billing, Services or Logistics.

Feedback needs to be timely and reliable and compelling enough to convince stakeholders that it can help them deliver against their own objectives

5. Establish Common Interests With Stakeholder Groups

It’s common sense, but it’s important to speak the right language to different stakeholders.

• Exec teams will be concerned about operating margins, EBITDA and competitive difference
• Operational areas will focus on productivity drivers and cost efficiency
• Contact centre management and frontline staff will have their own concerns

Apply the right lens to ensure your feedback appeals to the right personal and business drivers here.

6. Recognize the Importance of the Frontline in the Insight Loop

CX feedback shouldn’t be owned solely by the marketing department.

Instead, by providing contact centre agents with real-time access to feedback, there’s a real opportunity not only to unlock development improvements but also to directly tie agent results to improvements in overall CX performance

7. Make Sure You Close the Loop

Failing to reach out to customers and close the loop on the feedback they provide is still perhaps the biggest missed opportunity evident in many of today’s Voice of the Customer programmes.

Sabio research suggests that only 6% of organizations proactively reach out to customers to respond to their feedback.

Author: Robyn Coppell