Knowledge Base · Seeing Problems
What is the voice of the customer, and how do I capture it?
The voice of the customer is what the people you serve actually expect, prefer, and dislike, gathered and acted on systematically rather than guessed at. Capture it with a mix of methods: surveys, interviews and focus groups, direct observation, and feedback from frontline staff. Customer here includes internal teams and partners, not only buyers.
Chapter 3 defines capturing the voice of the customer (VoC) as the systematic process of gathering, analysing, and acting on feedback from the people you serve. A process can be efficient and still fail, the book argues, if it does not deliver what the customer actually wants.
Customer is used in the broadest sense. The book lists four groups, each with its own expectations:
- End consumers: the people who ultimately buy or use your products or services.
- Internal customers: other departments and teams that rely on your work.
- Stakeholders: your board, investors, and community partners.
- Business partners: suppliers, vendors, and others in your value chain.
Capture methods include surveys such as Net Promoter Score for a high-level loyalty measure, focus groups and interviews for depth, direct observation of customers using the product, employee feedback from the front line, and structured operational reviews. The book's starting exercise is small: pick one customer group and hold three 15-minute conversations, asking what they find valuable and what makes working with you difficult. Listen, take notes, and look for common themes.
Expect to listen past the first answer. Customers often describe a symptom rather than the underlying need, so the work is drawing out what they mean, not only what they say.
Related questions
- What is a gemba walk (a "go and see"), and how do I do one?
- How do I write a good problem statement?
- What is DMAIC, and when should I use it?
Source: Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, Ch. 3 (Learning to See) and the CI glossary in the book's Appendix.