How to build an effective voice of the customer program

If you want to grow your business, you need to understand what your customers feel, think, want and need. That's exactly the information a voice of the customer (VoC) program provides you with. It's a process of collecting customer feedback, learning from it, and then making smart changes for product, service, and overall customer experience improvements.

Constructing an effective VoC program can appear overwhelming at first. What do you ask? How do you gather feedback? What voice of the customer survey software do you need? Once you have the information, what do you do with it?

This guide will walk you step by step. You'll learn what a VoC program is, why it matters, how to build one, what tools to apply, and how to avoid common pitfalls. 

What is a voice of the customer program?

"Voice of the customer" refers to information you collect on what your customers say about your product or service – their opinions, feelings, and experiences. It's not only the feedback itself, but the information and insights gleaned from that feedback. This information enables you to understand what your customers really think about your product and want from your company.

VoC is the systematic and ongoing collection, classification, and interpretation of data, helping businesses detect trends, understand what customers like or do not like, and identify areas to improve. The objective is to make better-informed decisions that lead to improved products, satisfied customers, and stronger business growth based on true customer feedback.

What is a voice of the customer program in simple words? Essentially, it's a program that turns customer voices into actionable insights that drive your business forward. 

The benefits of voice of the customer programs 

A VoC program helps companies gather and analyze customer opinions to get insight into their desires and preferences.

It provides you with objective, actionable feedback about what your customers enjoy, dislike, and anticipate. Instead of making educated assumptions, you can make data-informed decisions on insights from real customer voices. The outcome is enhanced products, services, and experiences tailored to your target audience.

A few of the significant benefits of creating a voice of the customer program are:

• Improved customer satisfaction and retention: Gathering and responding to feedback from customers leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty. You're more likely to retain satisfied customers, which, in turn, increases profits.‍
• Improved product development: VoC insights help you understand customers' pain points with your product and what they want from it. With this understanding, you can drive product improvement and innovations according to the needs of the customers.‍
• More revenue: Customers who come back to your company after previous purchases increasingly spend more and more money over time. Studies indicate repeat customers spend 67% more than new customers.‍
• Better decision-making: VoC programs provide fact-based insights that drive strategic business decisions across marketing, sales, and customer service. The results are enhanced business strategies.‍
• Competitive advantage: If you actively listen to customer feedback, you can differentiate yourself from competitor businesses by building stronger relationships with your user base and boosting their loyalty.

Using the knowledge obtained through a VoC program, businesses can make data-driven choices and improvements that maximize customer experiences, fuel the company's expansion, and enhance overall performance.

Building your voice of the customer program in 6 steps

Creating a successful VoC program isn't simply about collecting feedback, it's about collecting the right, relevant information and turning it into smart business decisions. Here is a practical 6-step guide to designing a VoC program that delivers real value to your team and your customers.

1. Set clear goals

Start by defining what you want your voice of the customer VoC program to accomplish. Are you attempting to find pain points for customers, track brand sentiment, or prioritize product improvements? Clear objectives keep you focused and make ROI (return on investment) easier to measure.

2. Decide on the insights you need

Be specific about what kind of customer insights are most valuable. Do you need honest product feedback, service satisfaction levels, or reasons for churn? Define your goal upfront to ensure your data collection mechanisms and questions separate the insights (from an overwhelming pool) that drive decisions.

For example:

• Brand sentiment. When building your voice of the customer program, understand how customers perceive your brand overall. Are they loyal advocates of your business or ​​on the verge of abandoning it?
• Product opinions. Gather opinions on features, ease of use, and satisfaction rates to identify areas for improvement.
• Customer journey insights. Identify pain points or aha moments across touchpoints – for example, during onboarding or support.
• Churn or cancellation reasons. Discover why your customers churn (poor service, limited functions, evolving needs), so you can fix issues before losing more business.

Knowing precisely what you want to understand helps you to develop specific questions and avoid being buried in the mass of irrelevant information.

Here are 57 voice of the customer survey questions to help you start gathering vital data from customers.

3. Select the right feedback channels

Pick feedback channels according to your objectives and your audience. Surveys are great at quantitative feedback, but forums and customer panels are no less important. They can also provide rich qualitative feedback. Don't overlook exit or cancellation forms, because they may reveal major issues before they become out of control. 

• Surveys: Best for systematic data collection. Use NPS (Net Promoter Score), CSAT (Customer Satisfaction), or customized surveys to gauge opinions.
• Internet forums: Monitor raw live discussions and discover tendencies directly from customers.
• Customer panels: Select the most active customers and ask their opinions for richer feedback and discussion. Reward them for active participation. Also, you can offer them beta versions of new products, for example. The added benefit is that 43% of customers say they're willing to provide businesses with even more data if they get rewarded for it.
• Cancellation or exit surveys: Try to get insight from customers who decide to leave, because it is vital to uncover fixable imperfections.

4. Pick the most appropriate tools to gather and analyze

Use tools that simplify data collection and offer robust analytics (Checkbox, Qualitrics, Achievers, or others). 

Look for platforms offering automated survey deployment, real-time dashboards, sentiment analysis, and integrations to connect VoC insights to your CRM (customer relationship management) or marketing systems.

5. Share insights across teams strategically

Marketing, product, sales, and customer success teams all benefit from VoC data. However, the main challenge is how to deliver tailored reports and alerts so they can act quickly and effectively.

The solution? Integrate automated, role-specific reporting and effective alert systems, customized to each team's goals and responsibilities. For example:

• Product teams will get reports about feature requests and user experience issues
• Marketing teams will get access to reports about market trends, sentiment trends, and brand perception
• Sales teams will get data on product aha moments and positive sentiment that they can share with leads
• Support teams will get insights into product and onboarding pain points

6. Turn insights into action and evolve your program

Act based on customer feedback, track the impact (for example, improved Net Promoter Score (NPS), reduced churn rate, higher conversion rates, shorter problem resolution times), and refresh your VoC program accordingly. Your program should remain aligned with changing business needs and expectations of the target audience.

Selecting the right VoC tools

The appropriate voice of the customer tools are not merely software for sending questionnaires; the best tools will enable you to gather data, analyze it, and respond to customer feedback seamlessly.

In choosing VoC tools, keep the following in mind:

• Customization: Does the tool let you tailor the look and feel of surveys to your needs? Can you add your own branding and include many different question types?
• Data collection options: Do the tools enable more than one feedback stream, such as surveys, online questionnaires, customer panels, or social media monitoring? Flexibility in this regard enables you to capture more comprehensive insights.
• Analysis capabilities: Look for platforms that offer real-time dashboards, sentiment analysis, text analytics, and easy-to-understand reports. These features help you turn raw data into practical action.
• Integration: Can the VoC software be integrated with your CRM, marketing automation, or customer support platforms?
• Ease of use: The best tools with user-friendly interfaces help you save effort and time. With them, your team can create surveys with ease, monitor feedback effortlessly, and report results quickly. 
• Scalability and support: It's better to pick tools that scale with your organization and offer good customer support, and resources for training and educating.

Some of the top tools for creating a VoC in 2025 include Checkbox, Qualtrics, SurveySparrow, Alchemer, and Medallia. They all do something unique, so choose one that is most suitable for your specific requirements and budget.

Turn VoC data into business impact with Checkbox. Request a demo today!

Who should run the VoC program?

Any business of any size can benefit from having a well-thought-out VoC program. The issue is who should run it.

In small and medium businesses, marketing, customer service, or product groups are usually well-positioned to run the program part-time. These groups already talk to customers and can easily integrate VoC insights into what they do.

For large businesses with more complex requirements, there is a possibility of employing a full-time VoC program manager or even a small team to ensure the seamless running of the program. They will be responsible for collecting and analyzing data, as well as exchanging information between different departments.

What is the standard VoC program manager's salary?

The average voice of the customer program manager salary in 2025 differs according to location:

• United States (Glassdoor): $107,000 to $135,000 a year 
• Western Europe (Glassdoor): €62,000 to €100,000 a year

Keep in mind that compensation is dependent on the experience of the specialist and the location (prices in Germany and the UK can be different, for example). We provided just the average market rates for professionals responsible for running programs.

The 5 best voice of the customer program tools

In this section, we have gathered the top 5 best tools, so you can choose the best VoC software to collect information about customers, systematize it, and improve your products/services accordingly. 

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Checkbox

Best for: Secure, flexible surveys with lots of customization, including where you host it

Key features:

• No-code survey building
• Multiple hosting options (cloud, on-premises, white-label)
• Real-time reporting
• API (application programming interface) & webhook connectivity

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Qualtrics

Best for: Enterprise-level research and complex analytics

Key features:

• Sophisticated survey logic and customization
• Predictive analytics & sentiment analysis
• Strong CRM and HR integrations

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SurveySparrow

Best for: Conversational, multi-channel feedback collection

Key features:

• Chat-based surveys with skip logic
• Multichannel distribution (email, web, mobile)
• Real-time dashboards

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Alchemer

Best for: Enterprises that need highly customizable survey solutions

Key features:

• Flexible branching, piping, and scripting options
• Strong integrations with CRM, ERP and other tools
• HIPAA, GDPR, and enterprise-grade security

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Medallia

Best for: Large-scale, omnichannel VoC and CX (customer experience) programs

Key features:

• Survey, social, voice, and other feedback
• AI-powered sentiment & text analysis
• Real-time alerts and connections to business systems

Voice of the customer program best practices and pitfalls

Here are some key tips for successfully implementing a VoC program, as well as the common challenges and pitfalls you may encounter and need to overcome.

Segment your audience

Divide customers by behavior, demographics, or purchase type. Create questions for each segment to provide more applicable data and improved response rates.

Use multiple feedback channels

Combine surveys, interviews, social media monitoring, and support data to get the whole picture of customer sentiment.

Use automated gathering but review manually

Automate reports for speed, but manually review comments and key responses to determine key findings.

Report results fast to teams

Provide feedback insights to product, marketing, and support teams fast so they can react and improve customer experience in time.

Train your staff 

Implement a voice of the customer certification program and ensure your team has a shared understanding and consistent approach, and the right skills to act on data.

Close the loop with "You said, we did."

You need to show customers and employees how their feedback led to tangible changes. This creates credibility and encourages more honest feedback in the future.

Avoid the common pitfalls

When implementing a VoC program, you may fall into some common traps. If you don't want these traps to undermine your efforts, keep an eye out for these mistakes:

• Collecting too much data without pre-determined goals
• Asking the same question of each customer (bad practice)
• Delaying the sharing of insights with teams or not taking any action on them
• Considering your program as a single, stand-alone project (it's an iterative process)

Final thoughts

Now you have an understanding of how to build a voice of the customer program. An excellent VoC program turns customer feedback into tangible business growth. To implement what you're learning, start by creating specific objectives from the feedback you collect, like improving product usability, reducing churn, or increasing customer satisfaction.

Lastly, share these insights with the right departments. Ensure your product, marketing, or customer support teams are in line with the customer feedback you obtained. 

Use the data to pinpoint critical issues, highlight features that customers need, and create action plans. Track the results of improvements, refine VoC, and keep the feedback loop open to drive constant improvement.

Ready to get started with one of the top tools for building voice of the customer programs? Try Checkbox free today and start turning feedback into real action.

Voice of the customer program FAQs