While over three quarters (78 percent) of brands now measure customer satisfaction, most admit to failing to get real business insight from listening to the Voice of the Customer (VoC), according to new research from UK-based digital CX firm Eptica, which found that less than a quarter (24 percent) of brands feel that existing measurements give them the deep insight they need to transform their business, and the experience they provide to customers.
The research found that despite brands analyzing the growing number of interactions they have with their customers, they struggle to get real value from them. For example, 83 percent analyze email conversations, and 75 percent study customer reviews and comments, yet only 12 percent and 11 percent respectively see this currently providing actionable customer intelligence.
Existing VoC systems are unable to measure factors that directly impact loyalty, revenue, and churn or to share insight across the business
Sixty-two percent of survey respondents wanted to identify pain points through VoC programs, while over half were looking to measure emotions. The same number (53 percent) needed to be able to identify detractors and explain why they acted as they did in order to protect revenues and minimize churn.
Customer insight data is still stored in silos
While 79 percent shared information with marketing, 82 percent with customer service, 74 percent with sales and 71 percent with operations, just 38 percent shared with e-commerce and 21 percent with teams running physical shops.
“Brands know that to truly engage with their customers and build long-term relationships they need to understand their wants and needs, and be able to use this insight to drive an improved customer experience,” said Olivier Njamfa, CEO and co-founder of Eptica, in a news release. “However, our research shows that they are being held back by existing systems and approaches – they are struggling with a partial picture that they find difficult to turn into actionable insights that can transform their business.”
Eptica recently launched vecko, an AI-powered solution that enables brands to access customer intelligence, continuously improve CX and generate immediate ROI. “Current metrics and systems provide a rough guide to what customers are saying, but don’t give insight into why they are behaving in particular ways or deliver a true, real-time picture of their emotions,” added Taoufik Massoussi, product manager and head of AI at Eptica. “By extending analysis to all customer conversations, vecko provides access to a gold mine of potential insight, delivering actionable customer intelligence across the organization through its advanced, AI-powered innovation.”
To measure the current state of the VoC market, Eptica worked with Engage Business Media to survey a range of UK businesses in Q4 2018, with 154 respondents from organizations of all sizes.
