Customer-Centric PR Strategies for Using the Voice of the Customer

Savvy businesspeople understand that the only thing you can predict about the market is its unpredictability. Markets evolve. New competitors emerge, and existing ones may fade away in the blink of an eye.

But one fact remains steadfast: no matter what your industry may be or what kinds of market conditions you’re operating under, the indisputable preeminence of the customer. The customer is the heart and soul of every successful business. It was always thus, and always thus it will be.

Today’s business leaders, leveraging the capabilities of dedicated servers, have an advantage that the entrepreneurs of yesterday could only have dreamed of. That is, they have unprecedented and seemingly unlimited access to the voice of the consumer. But even the most successful leaders are only beginning to understand how to leverage the consumer’s voice in this brave new world of nearly infinite market data. The reliability and efficiency of dedicated servers play a pivotal role in processing and analyzing this wealth of consumer data, allowing businesses to make informed decisions and stay ahead in an ever-changing market landscape.

Understanding Voice of the Customer (VoC)

Anyone who enters the business world quickly begins to appreciate how vast the gulf may be between one’s image of the target customer and reality. The market you initially set out to serve may not, in fact, be the one you end up working for. And the needs and goals you were determined to address may not end up aligning with those of your market.

This is where the voice of the customer comes to play such a critical role in developing public relations strategies that are effective, efficient, and timely.

The voice of the customer enables you to understand on a truly granular level how your target audience perceives your brand, your competition, and even themselves and their world. These insights are essential if you are to design communication strategies to reach them, resonate with them, and inspire them to act.

Optimizing customer engagement

Understanding the importance of the voice of the customer is only the first step in designing customer-focused PR strategies. You also must know how to listen to the voice of the customer, where to find it, and how to build actionable PR strategies from it.

The key lies in spurring customer engagement whenever, wherever and however possible. This often involves a constellation of strategies used in conjunction with one another to develop a nuanced profile of who your customer is, what they want, what they need, and how the current market meets or doesn’t meet those goals and expectations.

Soliciting user-generated content (UGC)

In addition to collecting basic customer data through demographic profiling, you might unleash the immense power of the internet for higher-order insights. Social media platforms, for example, can provide tremendous insight into the attitudes of target audiences.

Inviting user-generated content (UGC) can not only be an enormously effective way to tap into the voice of the customer, but it can also transform the customer’s voice into a potent PR tool.

Soliciting customer review videos on social media enables decision-makers to assess the customer’s experience and define creative, targeted solutions for improving the product. This, in turn, can be leveraged by the PR team into timely, customer-driven campaigns that solidify the brand identity as one that genuinely listens to and cares about customers.

PR, customer voice, and customer experience

User-generated content is only one approach, albeit a very important one, for unleashing the voice of the customer. Such content, when combined with other sources of customer data, will build a comprehensive profile of the overall customer experience that can be parlayed into public relations. The goal, ultimately, is to effectively measure and use customer engagement by gathering as much feedback from as wide a variety of sources as possible.

In addition to cultivating a robust social media presence, deploying online and in-person customer surveys and collating online customer reviews is essential. As you accumulate a wide variety of customer feedback, including NPS Tools and customer feedback AI analytics, you will almost inevitably identify trends, both positive and negative, that reflect your target customer’s voice.

Negative reviews, for instance, may prove to be fertile ground both for improving a product or service and for boosting PR. By acknowledging and addressing customer complaints in your PR campaigns, you’re cultivating a brand image that is simultaneously honest, humble, and caring.

In an era where company ethics matter as much as product function and affordability to many customers, advancing a trustworthy and customer-focused image is paramount. And sometimes, admitting your product or service shortcomings is the best way to do it.

The takeaway

The customer has always been both the foundation and the north star of public relations. The success of any PR campaign is a function of its ability to connect with the target audience. But this connection is determined by how well, how astutely, the PR team has listened to and understood the voice of the customer.

Hearing the customer out — using their own words and actions to define their unique needs, goals, and evolving perceptions and experiences — is imperative to crafting effective PR.

Burrelles comprehensive monitoring allows you to track mentions (and sentiment) in real-time from all media — print, online, broadcast, and social. We tailor subscriptions to each of our client’s specific objectives and requirements. Contact us to discuss your specific needs.

Guest Contributor: Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in lifestyle, mental health, education, and fitness-related content. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie.

To connect with Katie, you can follow her on Twitter.

The copy and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Burrelles, our employees, partners, or affiliates.

Image Source: Pixabay