3 ways to boost your VOC program’s value through journey management

A major challenge for voice of the customer (VOC) teams is proving their value. Their impact is often marginalized because they struggle to drive action that improves the customer experience. This makes it harder to demonstrate their effectiveness, reducing their visibility and influence.

Why does this happen? Many VOC teams focus too much on metrics and reporting, diverting attention from meaningful action. A more significant issue is their lack of a customer journey management approach. They design feedback mechanisms around internal structures rather than the entire customer journey, overlook how sentiment varies by persona and lack processes to act on insights.

VOC teams that start with the customer journey are more successful in turning insights into action. The most effective leaders follow three key best practices.

1. Tailor CX metrics to stages of customer journeys 

A common mistake many VOC teams make is using a single CX metric to measure every aspect of the customer experience. While a topline CX metric provides a common language for the organization, don’t apply it to everything. This metric is typically a lagging, outcome-oriented measure. Identifying leading metrics that influence the topline metric is essential, as they are easier to act on.

Mapping the customer journey allows you to tailor CX metrics to each stage and select the right action-oriented measure. In some cases, the best metric may come from customer survey feedback, while in others, an observable operational metric may be more effective. Feedback mechanisms should also vary by journey stage. Some touchpoints may not require CX metrics at all. Striking the right balance is easier with a journey management approach. 

For example, in an airline customer’s journey, early stages like booking are best suited for in-the-moment feedback. In contrast, post-flight feedback is more valuable for assessing the in-flight experience.

The type of experience also influences the best metric to use:

• Customer Effort Score (CES) is more appropriate for booking.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) is better for evaluating the loyalty program. 

Additionally, specific steps in the journey can be assessed using operational data rather than customer feedback.

Mapping out the customer journey facilitates this tailored approach to feedback and metrics. 

2. Track persona-specific customer sentiment at key moments of truth

Having the right CX metric at each stage of the journey helps identify customer pain points, but the next step is understanding the “why” behind the scores. VOC teams have a wealth of insight in the form of unstructured customer feedback. With advanced text analytics tools and AI, it’s easier than ever to categorize large volumes of feedback into key themes. However, while these models are powerful, the insights they generate are often too high level to be actionable.

A journey management approach solves this problem by identifying key moments of truth — points where the customer journey could shift based on the experience — and tracking sentiment at these moments.

But tracking overall customer sentiment isn’t enough. Customers have different needs and expectations, so you should create personas to segment customers accordingly. Sentiment tracking should then be broken down by persona at each journey stage.

For example, consider an airline tracking customer sentiment across different personas. The dotted line in the illustration below represents overall customer sentiment. At first glance, sentiment appears mostly neutral across journey stages. However, breaking it down by persona reveals key differences.

• Road warriors are dissatisfied with customer support.
• Family travelers are unhappy with aspects of the in-flight experience.

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3. Develop closed-loop processes to act on insights at each journey stage

Understanding persona-specific sentiment at key moments of truth helps identify and prioritize recommended actions. However, it is equally important to develop closed-loop processes to ensure the actions are carried out. 

The journey map should incorporate recommended actions aligned with journey stages and personas. This process helps identify the right internal stakeholders to drive initiatives forward.

These initiatives should be linked to project management tools so you can assign owners and track progress. Initiative owners should also be involved in the journey mapping process to understand how their efforts impact the broader customer experience.

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Operationalizing journey management

Building a journey management approach is a journey in itself, and you’ll need to iterate and build over time. When you complete initiatives — and hopefully improve the customer experience — don’t keep those wins to yourself. Share the impact on CX metrics and customer sentiment across your organization to build visibility and momentum.

Make sure to update your journey maps as you go, reflecting the improvements you’ve made. Celebrating progress helps keep teams engaged and motivated to tackle the next opportunity to enhance the customer journey.

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