How to capture the voice of the customer

This post is written by Ellie Haden, Digital Business Analyst, Barking and Dagenham Council

• **The problem: **Customers are key to the smooth running of public services - but aren’t always accommodated.
• Why it matters: Inefficiencies in supporting the public can cause a backlash.
• The solution: Capturing the voice of the customer effectively improves services.

Whether you’re in the public or private sector, understanding the voice of the customer is vital to making user-centred services that customers are happy to use.

**What is “voice of the customer”? **

The term “voice of the customer” refers to the feedback we get from customers on our services. It can be tricky to get an overall picture, when each interaction between a customer and a service can be very different. However, by pulling together the different data sets from points where customers are feeding back, analysing this and picking out key themes, our teams can prioritise service improvements that matter most to our customers.

**Why is it important? **

Feedback is often optional, so if a customer is giving us their time to tell us how to improve a service, we need to review and see if we can act on this. If we don’t, the customer could feel “cheated” that they have given their time and got nothing in return, which could cause more frustration than the initial issue they were giving feedback on.

By acting on feedback we receive from users, we can build trust with customers and residents. The user will see that there are real people in government services who are listening, which is increasingly important as the world moves further into digital services and away from the person on the phone or the front desk who the customer can hold accountable.

So if you’re looking to put the customer first, think of the following:

1. Map out all the different avenues a customer is giving your service(s) feedback.
2. Review if you are capturing feedback at the right time.
3. Pick out key themes for each service from the different data sets.
4. Display the data in a way staff (and if you want to be more transparent, your own customers) will understand.
5. Most importantly, meet with staff to agree actions to improve the experience of customers based on this feedback.

To stay updated on how the Customer Experience Team at Barking and Dagenham Council are capturing the Voice of the Customer and our other projects check out our blog: https://lbbdcx.com/ — Ellie Haden

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(Picture Credit: Unsplash)