Listening to your customers is one of the most effective ways to grow your business. If you're looking to grow your business and hypergrow, consider developing a Voice of the Customer (VOC) strategy to help you understand what your customers care about and provide them with what they need.

What is a “Voice of the Customer” (VOC) strategy?

An effective VOC strategy prioritizes feedback from your customers. It allows you to gather information about customer needs in order to better design your products and services to meet those needs. Not only will it improve customer satisfaction, but it will also boost business and brand loyalty.

Here are four key elements of an effective VOC strategy:

1. Listening to and collecting VOC data

Listen and gather real-time feedback from your customers to better understand their needs and challenges. Listen to their suggestions and ideas for improving your product or service. If you want to maintain and develop your customer base, active listening is essential and must be part of your company culture.

Listening to and responding to your customers shows that you value their opinions. If you involve them in building your business, your customers will feel more attached to your business.

You can gather VOC data using a wide range of tools, such as interviews, surveys, reviews, live chats, discussion groups, website traffic, search engine results, and social media. You can also study your competitors and what makes them successful. Using multiple channels to gather this feedback will allow you to get a diversity of perspectives and opinions.

Measure and evaluate all the data you gather to identify common trends, emerging issues, priorities, and areas for improvement.

2. Engage your customers where they are

Get to know your customers. Find out where they get their information and what meetings and sales events they are likely to attend. Whether on the web, social media, or face-to-face, it's important to involve your customers where they are. Establish a connection as a follower or a friend, by offering them a space for two-way communication so they can answer their questions, establish a dialogue, and become a key source of knowledge in your industry.

Also, be sure to identify and engage voices in your industry, such as experts, thought leaders, and influencers, who can potentially become champions of your product or service.

3. Focus on your customers' problems and how to solve them

When a customer is unhappy or angry, don't run away from them. As Bill Gates once said, “Your most unhappy customers are your biggest source of learning.” Listen and respond to customer complaints. Learn from their experiences with your product or service. Discuss and understand their issues, establishing a continuous feedback loop and taking timely action. Discovering the nature of the problem and how to solve it is fundamental to improving the customer experience.

You can turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer by working together to determine how your product or service can best address their problems. The proposed solution will invariably appeal not only to this customer, but also to many other like-minded customers, which will make your business grow.

4. Share your customers' experiences by telling stories

When your customers are happy, be sure to document and share their positive experiences. They are your best source of stories to promote and grow your business. Your success stories should be shared widely across your marketing channels, including the website, mobile apps, and social media. They can be told in a variety of formats, such as a blog, newsletter article, video, podcast, infographic, and/or social media message.

Be sure to include the voices of your customers in your stories. Their first-hand experiences will make your stories more enjoyable and easier to understand. They will encourage other potential customers to learn about you and will contribute to increasing the visibility of your business.

The values and origins of your business can also provide good content for storytelling, effectively evoking your fundamental “why”, the reason why you exist in the first place. Your origin story will help develop an emotional connection with customers, giving your brand a face.

Once you've collected and understood your customer's voice, you'll have the data you need to provide a product or service that your customers actually want and need to make their lives easier. A good VOC strategy will help you actively listen to your customers, build strong relationships, analyze the data you receive, and better shape your business. Not only will it produce happy customers who are loyal to your brand, but it will drive sales, increase revenue, and ultimately grow your business.

For some key tips on how to listen to your customers, watch this short video.