Voice of Customer (VOC) in Product Design

If companies want to improve their business in terms of revenue and profits, then they has to listen to their customers, empathise with their concerns and listen to the voice of Customers (VOC).

⏩ Voice of Customer (VOC) help us to answer:

1️⃣ Why your customers need you?

2️⃣ What are your customer’s needs?

3️⃣ How could you help your customers?

4️⃣ What are your customer’s interests?

5️⃣ What are your customer’s behavioural patterns?

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➲ Voice of Customer (VOC) is a way of studying what your customers feel or expect from your products, services and that helps you to serve them better.

➲ When you align your product design targets with Voice of Customer (VOC) it helps to design the product which could sell in the market.

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⏩ Methods of Voice of Customers (VOC) Program:

1️⃣ Customer Interviews:

It’s a traditional technique to understand Voice of Customer in which individual or group of potential customers could be interviewed about your target product needs.

2️⃣ Customer Surveys:

We can conduct online customer surveys by asking set of questions to our customers including multiple choice questions or single word answers.

3️⃣ Social Media Listening:

Social media is one of the popular ways to collect early feedbacks on minimum viable products (MVP) or listening about the feedbacks about the similar products.

4️⃣ Online Customer Reviews:

Read reviews on e-commerce websites like amazon where you sell your products.

Reviews are great ways of collecting customer feedbacks real quick.

5️⃣ In Person Survey:

In person surveys where you talk to potential customers to collect their expectations, concerns and feedback about similar products or services.

6️⃣ Focus Groups:

In this method, techno savvy customers or team members brainstorm latest technology trends and explore how these technologies could solve the real life problems.

Technology based companies mainly rely on this method of collecting Voice of Customer.

7️⃣ Email Feedback:

You can collect email feedbacks from your customers as well.

8️⃣ Net Promoter Score (NPS):

NPS measures customer loyalty. To find Net promoter Score, customer needs to answer simple questions and rate on a scale of 0-10.

➲ Question could be like:

How likely you would recommend our product to your friends and students?

Score 9-10 are your loyal customer’s or Promoters

Score 7-8 are mostly Passive

Score 0-6 are Detractors

➲ Net Promoter’s Score = (% of Promotors – % of Detractors)

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⏩ List of Potential Questions for VOC:

➲ What feature are you looking for in the product or service?

➲ What matters the most when you select the product or service?

➲ What emotions come to your mind when you think bout our Products?

➲ Name few of our competitor products and explain why you would buy them

➲ Which products have you purchased recently and why?

➲ How could we improve our product or service?

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⏩ Example of Voice of Customer (VOC):

⏩ VOC of Seating Ball Point Pen:

➲ Clean writing

➲ Consistent writing

➲ Long lasting

➲ Easy refilling

➲ Good grip

➲ Easy to hold while writing

➲ Easy to carry

➲ Fits easily in the pocket

➲ Firm mounting on shirt

➲ Low price

➲ No damage when fall

➲ Attractive & trendy looks

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⏩ Kano Model of Voice of Customer (VOC):

➲ Kano Model is a great way to visualise and categorise Voice of Customers (VOC) and attributes of product or services.

➲ Kano model was published in Japan in 1984 by Noriaki Kano, Tokyo University of Science’s Professor of Quality Management.

⏩ This model assigns following attributes to product or services in consideration:

1️⃣ Basic Attributes:

These are basic features customer expect in the product. Like, when you buy smartphone, you will by default expect camera and headphone.

2️⃣ Performance Attributes:

These elements if present in the product or service adds to customer satisfaction. Like, customers will love cars with higher mileage or extended service warranty.

3️⃣ Delighter Attributes:

These attributes make product viral on social media and boost competitive edge for your products.

These are the features customers may not know they want, but they are delighted when they find about them. Like, when i-phone was launched, camera feature was a delighter.

Pleasant trendy aesthetics or new technology in the product could be also delighter.

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⏩ Read my other blogs to understand top mechanical design skills for 10X career growth.

⏩ Read blog: https://designgekz.com/most-in-demand-skills-in-mechanical-design-engineering/

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