How to build a voice of customer programme

The six parts

If you are working out how to build a voice of customer program (or programme), it helps to see the whole shape first. Each part depends on the one before it.

1. Sources: where feedback comes from.
2. Taxonomy: the categories everything is classified into.
3. Analysis: measuring topics, sentiment and change.
4. Owners: who acts on each theme.
5. Rhythm: when findings are reviewed and decided.
6. Checks: whether changes worked.

1. Start with the feedback you have

Most businesses already have more feedback than they use: thousands of Google reviews, app reviews, complaints in the CRM, survey comments nobody reads. Start there. Add new surveys only for gaps, such as a moment in the journey nobody writes about.

2. Build one taxonomy

Create themes and sub-themes from what customers actually write, with definitions and examples, and use them for every source. Keep them stable; change them rarely and record when.

3. Analyse consistently

• Classify every piece of feedback at the mention level, with sentiment.
• Measure volume, negative share and change by topic, store, channel and month.
• Flag small samples.
• Keep the original words with every number.

4. Name owners

Every theme needs one accountable owner in the business. The VoC team supplies evidence; owners decide and act.

5. Set a rhythm

• Weekly: a quick check for spikes and urgent issues.
• Monthly: owners review their themes; decisions and follow-ups.
• Quarterly: leadership review; taxonomy and measures reviewed.

6. Check and share results

Each action gets a baseline and a follow-up date. Results, good and bad, are shared. The programme's own scorecard is how many issues were fixed and stayed fixed.

The first 90 days

• Month 1: gather existing feedback, draft the taxonomy, classify the last three months.
• Month 2: name owners for the main themes; hold the first monthly review; agree three actions.
• Month 3: second review, first follow-ups, refine the taxonomy, share the first results.

Common questions

Roles in a VoC programme

• Programme lead: runs the rhythm, owns the taxonomy and the reporting.
• Analyst: keeps the classification accurate and prepares the monthly view.
• Theme owners: decide and act on their themes.
• Store and regional managers: act locally and reply to customers.
• Executive sponsor: unblocks cross-team decisions and funds fixes.

Pitfalls

• Launching with a big survey programme before using existing feedback.
• A taxonomy designed in a workshop rather than from real feedback.
• Owners named on paper but never asked for decisions.
• Reporting that grows every month until nobody reads it.

What it costs

The largest cost is people's time, not tools: an analyst's hours each month and an hour of each theme owner's time in the review. Software becomes worthwhile when feedback volume, the number of locations or the number of languages makes consistent classification by hand impractical.

Doing this with Falcon

Falcon adds the review-based measures to your CX metrics: for every theme and store, the volume of mentions, negative share, its change month to month and the number of reviews behind it, from Google Maps reviews of your stores and Google Play reviews of your app. Every number opens the reviews that explain it, which survey scores alone cannot do.