Voice of the Customer (VoC): Pinpointing Decision Making

Gaining insight into your customers and the markets you cater to is crucial for making informed decisions that sustain loyalty and identify new revenue streams. Enterprises employ Voice of the Customer (VoC) strategies to help enhance customer understanding and identify pain points and opportunities for deeper collaboration. Using third-party research providers can help gather non-biased feedback across business units and sectors. Referencing existing customers can be combined with other consulting exercises to pinpoint opportunities and competitive positioning. 

What is a VoC exercise?

VoC is the collection of feedback regarding a business, its product, or service through interviews with its customers and stakeholders. This can be conducted with full transparency, where the company introduces Calash to the relevant people within its customer base, or on a no-names basis in which we identify and engage with the company’s customers without revealing the identity of our client.

The exercise provides insights into customer preferences, issues, and grievances, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Analysing the VoC enables businesses to understand and react to customer needs and expectations, leading to smart decision making around new market entry, product development, inorganic growth and other strategic investments of time and resources. As both a consultancy and an expert network, Calash can pair the qualitative information of a VoC exercise with the data-driven quantitive insights of market analysis to provide a powerful tool for business assessment and growth. 

Voice of the Customer Focus Areas

Who should conduct a VoC?

Whether a company is standing still or moving in a new direction, fully understanding the buying drivers of existing and new customers is critical at every stage of a business. However, there are certain events where a VoC exercise offers the most value, such as:

• Growth Identification: where clients seek high-level insight to inform decisions on what customers desire. 
• M&A: to understand the customer risk associated with acquisition targets.
• Strategic Review: identifying success and/or failures in certain business units. 
• Product & Service Development: understanding the client base’s buying drivers and appetite for new solutions.
• New Market Entry: to learn about barriers to entry and how it can penetrate new markets and gain a greater share of customer wallets. 

When has Calash done this?

• Renewable energy condition monitoring system 

An established renewable energy multi-services player in the on-and-offshore wind industry. The company has developed an in-house software platform that collects and processes data to monitor the condition of wind turbines. Market adoption had been below aspirations, and the client wished better to understand the customer’s appetite for the product and gain a deeper understanding of pricing opportunities and ideal assets for deployment to consider future strategy. The project was coordinated between the company and its controlling shareholder. 

Initially, Calash conducted an in-depth management discovery session to identify product strengths, key customers, and the company’s perceived strengths and weaknesses and understand the high-level thoughts on strategic direction. Once established, Calash conducted a broad survey of clients, potential clients, and leads who had not yet been contacted. We found an appetite for solutions but considerable competition on certain asset types. Calash delivered a report that included key considerations and guidance regarding key roles to target during business development campaigns and operators’ appetite for a solution. 

• Global communications and security systems integrator

A leader in the communications and security services sector, supporting a global customer base in providing Integrated Communications, Telecoms, and Transport Services and support with Pipeline Integrity Systems and Critical Infrastructure. It specialises in system integration, from design to site commissioning and support solutions. The company commissioned Calash to undertake an independent referencing exercise in support of a review of company performance, seeking to understand what it does well and where it can make changes to better address its client’s needs. It wanted to further establish its performance compared to other market players, as well as customer needs, pain points, and potential threats.

Calash connected with clients and potential clients, several of whom had highly sensitive roles. Through strategically positioned questioning, Calash was able to pinpoint some of its successes as an equipment provider and its weaknesses as a project manager, which impacted its ability to increase its wallet share. Calash could highlight where additional support was required internally and externally for clients. Calash also helped identify opportunities with existing clients in new regions. Several customers mentioned that the exercise reflected positively on the company. 

• Leading construction and industrial services business

A global provider of support services to the energy, construction, nuclear, infrastructure, chemical, defence and heavy industrial sectors. It had recently acquired three leading businesses in Europe. It wanted to have an external party provide a situational update on its position and strategic opportunities as a result of the mergers. The client required a detailed market referencing exercise to understand customer perceptions, market needs, and the opinions of key competitors, alongside market mapping of key regions/sectors, including detailed competitor profiling. 

Calash engaged many market participants across various industries and geographies, splitting contacts into specialist areas, such as digital technology and innovation. The process was iterative, helping to form part of a broader strategic exercise. Calash continuously communicated with the client as it identified opportunities and potential challenges, many of which helped shape the exercise and hone in on key customer pain points. We also provided an appetite for greater service assistance and expected spend on OPEX and CAPEX by region. 

What do you do next?

Reach out to one of the Calash team below. We will arrange a confidential discussion of your business needs and, together, discover to what extent a VoC exercise can improve your client engagement and hone strategic decision-making.

It all starts with a conversation to understand your objectives.