Voice of the customer

When talking about voice of the customer (VoC) we think about the customers’ expectations which are driving product development, services and improvement of daily business.

The VoC method is there to identify and transforming customer wishes, expressed or unspoken, into a quantified and structured customer requirement catalogue. It therefore is typically used at the beginning of new product definition, it pre-defines features and functions for the further development process.

Voice of the Customer

Also important for customer service, whenever customer service is needed. As an example for use cases think about sales process or even management process. But to simplify we talk about products.

VoC unfolds his full potential in the product definition phase in combination with Six Sigma. When Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is performed, VoC delivers valuable input.

VoC makes it possible to define the design of a product in the product development process in such a way that the customer’s expectations are fulfilled or even exceeded. The product definition starts with customer needs and not with technical product features (think about Timwood > Over Engineering). By keeping this in mind you will have a higher level of customer orientation.

A separate analysis of requirements and technical solutions will increase your flexibility on both sides, with VoC you are creating a comprehensive understanding of the market demands and the products you are offering.

When we have a look at highly innovative products VoC might not be the right choice > when the potential customers don’t know about > how can they have expectations. This gives you a large uncertainty using VoC.

So, what is the expected outcome of VoC > it will give you a complete, structured list of weighted and non-overlapping customer requirements that can be directly used for the product development process. One way to bring it in format is a so called VoC table.

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What needs to be done before:

You will need a defined customer target group! If you don’t know your target group or segment a VoC will never deliver meaningful results.

Before you start with a VoC Project a project team needs to be defined, it should include at the least the core product development team. In this way you will be able to bring in the knowledge of marketing, sales, product development and management, quality and production as well as other departments of your organization. If you want to go for the complete thing, think about even getting in key customers as a temporary team extension.

Like in most cases, a VoC Project-Team is a cross functional and cross departmental group of people. Therefore, you have to have a neutral moderator. It is the moderator’s job to ensure that these different interests do not lead to any falsification while collecting customer expectations and formulation towards requirements

Finally, as it will be a project, it needs management support. The Management has three main tasks:

1. Ensure that people involved are set free of other tasks to give their full resources to the project

2. To approve resources

3. Approve further development of the outcome of a VoC project