To remain competitive, successful institutions utilize Voice of the Customer (VOC) to identify drivers of satisfaction and loyalty and the necessary actions related to the brand, products, services, and transactions throughout the customer journey. They strive to understand their customer base and what drives increases in positive sentiment and promotion of the brand.

An institution would implement a VOC program to answer questions such as:

• Why is our institution not attracting traffic at the same rate as local competition?
• Why have digital abandonment rates increased over the last year?
• With the financial industry average retention rate of 78 percent, why has our institution’s rate dropped to 64 percent?
• Why is our brand rating below competitors reflected by third-party rating mechanisms?

A vital first step to answering these questions requires identifying critical moments in the customer journey to place “listening posts.” Listening posts include surveys, website analytics, and interviews to assess the customer experience and identify areas where customer needs are not being met. Properly placed listening posts empower the institution to gather relevant and actionable feedback. A VOC program equips the institution to receive feedback from significant customer journey touchpoints, such as after a new account opening or a service interaction. This provides insight and direction for process, product, and experience improvements. In addition, having implemented business changes, VOC enables the institution to track sentiment trends and implement A/B testing ensuring that the chosen modifications achieve the desired results.

For more information, download the “Listening to the Voice of the Customer” interview with David Engebos, President and COO of ARGO.