Top 3 ways VOC insights help improve digital self-service journeys

Digital self-service is quickly changing the rules of customer loyalty. Customers can now navigate their entire journey without ever talking with someone or stepping into a store, and the allure of a shiny new offer can lead to quick clicks and fast churn.

To cultivate lasting loyalty, customer feedback is a vital component of the self-service experiences you offer and your continuous improvement strategy.

Here are the three most important ways to gather critical insights through a voice of the customer (VOC) program in a digital self-service landscape.

1. Leverage an omnichannel approach for customer feedback at scale

Many companies are missing out on vital customer feedback because even with the rapid rise of digital self-service, they’re still focused mainly on feedback in their voice channel.

ICMI’s State of the Contact Center in 2022 found 70% of companies report monitoring their inbound phone channel for quality and performance while fewer than 10% said that they regularly monitor digital self-service and social channels. A shift to digital omnichannel journeys creates an opportunity to gather more customer feedback across more touchpoints and gain deeper, holistic CX insights at scale.

Omnichannel benefits include:

• Reaching more customers and fully understanding channel or touchpoint experiences
• Pinpointing root causes of dissatisfaction and churn across channels
• Uncovering opportunities to address systemic issues
• Using diverse sets of feedback to identify opportunities for digital transformation improvements, as well as selective agent coaching

2. Make feedback a natural part of digital self-service journeys

Start with making feedback a natural part of the process to overcome the inherent challenge around capturing VOC in self-service journeys. Map out the digital customer journey and structure your feedback program to ask relevant, contextualized questions. Then, use what you know to ask the next best question—and incorporate that information to support the next best action.

Some do’s and don’ts to keep in mind

• Don’t make the feedback request feel like a bolt-on
• Don’t make feedback requests overly complex or time-consuming
• Do make the feedback request contextual
• Do make the feedback request purposeful

The key to gathering feedback on self-service experiences is embed it within the channel whenever possible. Questions should be part of the experience so the customer feels like they’re still interacting, and so you’re saving them time.

In a recent consumer and business survey about digital-first CX , 95% of businesses reported seeing a growth in self-service requests, with 34% of consumers citing faster response times as the number one benefit. Just 15% of consumers are highly satisfied with self-service but 53% of businesses believe consumers are satisfied.

3. Transform feedback into actionable CX insights

An impactful VOC program doesn’t just collect relevant feedback seamlessly, it delivers actionable insights at scale to help your organization continually improve your digital self-service experiences.

To get the kind of holistic insights that will help you move the needle, look for?modern VOC technology ?that uses AI, machine learning and analytics to combine and analyze:

• Quantitative feedback: CSAT, customer effort scores, quantitative reviews, NPS
• Qualitative feedback: open responses about what customers want/need/prefer, why they provided certain scores, suggestions for improvement
• Operational data: usage, drop offs, time spent, next step when self-service failed, e.g., Did they call the contact center?

For example, if a customer started in a self-serve digital channel and later called the contact center, it likely signals a problem because what started as a self-enabled experience ultimately became assisted. That’s the type of data that would slip by in a voice-only approach to VOC.

Next steps to drive loyalty with digital self-service done right

All digital experiences run on data. Impactful, self-service digital experiences run on VOC insights. Read the blog by Estela Misso of NICE, and learn more about creating impactful experiences in?How VOC can?empower digital self-service journeys .

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With cloud-powered CX, businesses can deliver personalized, efficient journeys from start to finish with advanced AI-powered tools. From self-service to human-assisted interactions, discover how to exceed customer expectations, drive superior CX results and promote long-term loyalty with the convenience customers expect and deserve. Learn more .

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