What does it actually mean to be customer-centric?
It’s one of those phrases we hear constantly — baked into mission statements, marketing decks, and product briefs. But when you zoom in, the companies that truly live it do one thing differently:
They treat customer feedback like a business input, not just a support ticket.
More than two-thirds of companies now compete primarily on customer experience. That’s not hype; it’s a shift. And the teams pulling ahead aren’t just “listening” to customers. They’ve built systems for it. Strategic, repeatable, cross-functional systems.
That’s where Voice of the Customer (VoC) comes in.
Done right, VoC isn’t just a survey at the end of the journey. It’s a framework that connects what your customers are saying to how your company makes decisions, from product prioritization to campaign messaging to CX processes.
And the results speak for themselves: companies with mature VoC programs see, on average, a 10% boost in annual revenue and a 55% lift in retention. Not because they say they care but because they prove it through what they build, ship, and fix.
This guide is for managers, marketers, and CX leaders who want to do the same. You’ll get:
- A high leverage breakdown of how to run VoC strategically
- Real world examples of brands using VoC to drive innovation and loyalty
- A plug-and-play template to jumpstart your own program
Let’s get into how to actually use the voice of your customer — not just collect it. But first the basics and why it matters.
What is a voice of the customer program?
A Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is a structured system for capturing, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback at every stage of their journey. It goes beyond one-off surveys, it’s about building a continuous loop where customer insights directly inform business decisions.
At its core, a VoC program is designed to help companies understand what customers truly think, feel, and need, not just what internal teams assume. By tapping into real-time feedback from surveys, interviews, support conversations, reviews, and other channels, VoC programs give brands a clear line of sight into the customer experience.
Why does this matter for CX and business alignment?
Because great customer experiences don’t happen by chance they’re built by design. A strong VoC program helps you spot friction early, validate product decisions with real input, and identify the moments that matter most to your customers.
Most importantly, it aligns your company’s goals with what your customers actually care about so you’re not just building faster or cheaper, but better.
How to collect voice of the customer (VoC) data
Here’s a sharp breakdown of how to collect Voice of the Customer (VoC) data across six key mediums tailored for teams that want to move fast and act on what they learn:
Customer interviews
Best for: Deep insights, emotional context, idea validation
How to use: Set up structured interviews with target customers especially after key touchpoints like onboarding, feature launches, or churn events. Use open-ended questions to uncover why users behave the way they do, what they value most, and where friction lies.
Pro tip: Focus on trends, not individual opinions. Three interviews saying the same thing? That’s a signal.
On-site customer surveys
Best for: Capturing in-the-moment feedback
How to use: Trigger short surveys directly on your website or product (e.g., after a user completes a task or lingers on a pricing page). Ask targeted questions like “What nearly stopped you from signing up?” or “What would make this feature more useful?”
Pro tip: Keep it short. One question with a text box often performs better than a long survey.
Live chat and support transcripts
Best for: Unfiltered, real-time feedback on issues
How to use: Mine live chat logs or support tickets for recurring themes like bugs, confusion points, objections, or feature requests. Tag and categorize common threads, and feed that intel into product and CX roadmaps.
Pro tip: Set up a tagging system for support teams so VoC data flows naturally into analysis, no extra work needed.
Social media listening
Best for: Organic sentiment and unsolicited feedback
How to use: Track brand mentions, product discussions, and industry chatter across platforms like X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Reddit, or even TikTok. Use social listening tools to monitor sentiment, identify advocates, or flag emerging issues.
Pro tip: Pay attention to language patterns. How people talk about your product helps refine positioning and messaging.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Best for: Benchmarking loyalty and tracking CX over time
How to use: Send NPS surveys at key lifecycle moments (e.g., 30 days after onboarding or post-purchase). Pair the 0–10 rating with a follow-up question: “What’s the reason for your score?” That’s where the gold is.
Pro tip: Analyze NPS by segment (customer type, plan, geography) to pinpoint what’s driving promoters or detractors.
Feedback forms
Best for: Always-on input from engaged users
How to use: Embed a feedback form within your app, website, or emails to invite users to share suggestions anytime. Use a mix of dropdowns (to bucket feedback) and open-text (for nuance).
Pro tip: Frame it as “Help us improve” not just “Give feedback” to increase responses and signal action.
Building a strategic voice of the customer program
Voice of the Customer (VoC) is not just about sending out an occasional survey, it’s a structured, continuous program embedded into your business strategy . A well-designed VoC initiative ensures that customer input is consistently collected, analyzed, and acted upon.
Here are key steps you need in your strategic VoC program:
Set clear objectives and KPIs
Define what you want to achieve with your VoC program from the outset. Is the goal to:
- increase customer satisfaction,
- reduce churn,
- improve a product, or
- enhance brand perception?
Setting specific objectives (and associated metrics like NPS improvement, churn reduction percentage, etc.) will guide your program and provide a way to measure success. Align these goals with your strategy so that VoC outcomes directly support organizational growth.
Secure executive buy-in and cross-functional alignment
Ensure leadership endorses the VoC initiative and communicates its importance across the company. VoC should not be confined to one department; it thrives when product, marketing, customer support, and operations all collaborate.
(After all, 80% of companies think they deliver great CX, but only 8% of customers agree – closing this gap requires company-wide effort.) Form a core VoC team or committee with representatives from key departments to champion the customer’s voice in their respective areas.
Design a multi-channel feedback collection plan
Meet your customers where they are. Decide which feedback channels will be most effective for your audience and objectives. Common channels include email or in-app surveys (for structured feedback), interviews or focus groups (for in-depth insights), social media and review monitoring (for unprompted feedback), and on-site feedback forms.
The plan should be proactive and diversified; a combination of channels ensures you hear from different customer segments in various contexts. You should also prioritize channels that yield quality feedback, for example, if response rates to email surveys are low, you might shift focus to phone interviews or live chat prompts for feedback.
Establish analysis and insight generation processes
Collecting data is only half the battle; you need to convert raw feedback into meaningful insights. Set up a process (and choose tools like digital form builders) for analyzing feedback. This could include qualitative coding of open-ended responses, text analytics software for large volumes of comments, and dashboard tracking for quantitative metrics.
You can also identify patterns:
- What issues come up repeatedly?
- Which features do customers praise or criticize most?
For example, categorize feedback into themes (product usability, pricing, customer service, etc.) and assign team members to dig into each. The goal is to translate feedback into a shortlist of actionable findings at regular intervals (e.g., monthly or quarterly VoC reports).
Act on feedback and close the loop
Ensure your organization is prepared to respond to what you learn. VoC insights are only valuable if they drive action. Prioritize the improvements that will impact customers most and align with your objectives (from quick fixes like UI tweaks to bigger initiatives like new product features or policy changes).
Implement changes and close the loop by informing customers that their feedback mattered. For instance, if customers complained about a confusing return process and you streamlined it, let them know their input directly led to that improvement. This follow-up not only boosts good will but also encourages continued feedback since customers see results.
Maintain continuous feedback
Treat VoC as an ongoing cycle, not a one-time project. Build in a continuous improvement mindset: schedule regular reviews of VoC data, and be ready to iterate on your feedback collection methods and questions. As your business or market evolves, so will customer expectations—ensure your VoC program adapts accordingly.
This could mean updating your survey questions, exploring new feedback channels (like an emerging social platform), or integrating new analytics tools. Regularly communicating VoC findings and progress to the entire company helps embed a customer-first mindset over the long term, making it an integral part of company culture.
Real world examples of VoC success
You don’t need theory, you need proof that VoC drives real results. Here’s what that looks like when done right:
- LEGO product innovation: LEGO didn’t just ask for feedback—they gave customers a seat at the table. With the LEGO ideas platform, fans submit and vote on new set concepts. The best ideas get turned into real products. Some of their top sellers came straight from this pipeline. By involving users early, LEGO reduces risk and builds exactly what their audience wants. Co-creation isn’t a trend. It’s a shortcut to building products people already love.
- Marriott guest voice: Marriott didn’t just run surveys, they built a listening system into the core of their guest experience strategy. Their “Guest Voice” program gathers feedback across every touchpoint, from post-stay surveys to social media mentions. When customers flagged friction during check-in, Marriott didn’t guess — they acted. Mobile check-in and keyless room entry followed, streamlining the arrival experience and reducing wait times. According to Emily Nohe, the former Senior Director of Enterprise Customer Listening, the brand’s focus is simple: listen, understand, and improve. Check out the interview here, this approach shows how VoC can power operational improvements that directly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Netflix pricing strategy: When faced with revenue loss from password sharing, Netflix didn’t just raise prices. Their VoC data showed users were sensitive to cost hikes. Instead, they introduced new sharing policies, communicated the value clearly, and gave people options. The result? A spike in new paid accounts, minimal churn, and a rebound in stock price. VoC isn’t just about improving products it helps navigate sensitive business decisions without breaking trust.
Using VoC templates to jumpstart your program
Rolling out a voice of the customer (VoC) program from scratch can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to collect feedback across multiple teams, channels, and touchpoints. That’s why Lumiform makes it easier.
Our VoC templates are designed to give you a fast, structured way to launch or scale your customer feedback process — without the guesswork.
Whether you’re just getting started or standardizing feedback collection across your org, these templates serve as a practical blueprint. They help you gather the right insights, route them to the right teams, and act on what matters most.
What you get with a Lumiform VoC template
Every template is built to support a full feedback lifecycle, from collection to action:
- Customizable digital forms: Tailor pre-built forms to collect feedback at any stage of the customer journey which can be service evaluations, product satisfaction, or issue resolution follow-ups.
- Seamless data collection: Gather feedback digitally across all devices, even offline, ensuring no input is missing either from surveys, on-site inspections, or direct customer interactions.
- Automated issue management: Turn feedback into action by automatically assigning tasks, tracking progress, and ensuring timely resolutions with Lumiform’s built-in workflows.
- Real-time analytics & reporting: Visualize trends, identify recurring issues, and share actionable insights with your team intuitive dashboards and reports.
And because Lumiform is built for operational efficiency, everything’s formatted for team collaboration which means your product, marketing, and CX teams can all work from the same source of truth.
Start fast, scale smart
You don’t need to build your VoC system from zero. With Lumiform, you get tools and templates that help you:
- Launch fast with a clear structure
- Stay consistent across feedback channels
- Turn raw input into measurable insights
- Drive alignment between departments
Want to get started? Download our free VoC templates and begin capturing actionable customer feedback, we also have it in PDF format if you’d prefer that.
Best practices for a voice of the customer program
Start by embedding VoC into your daily operations, not just quarterly reviews. Build feedback checkpoints into key moments of the customer journey after onboarding, post-support, and during product use. Automate where possible, but review the data manually at intervals to catch context and nuance automation might miss.
Familie Wiesner Gastronomie (FWG) also leverages Lumiform as a powerful customer journey tool using our platform to collect real-time feedback at critical touchpoints, ensuring they understand customer needs and pain points throughout the journey with a 75% higher precision in evaluating guest experience.
Prioritize feedback by business impact. Not every comment needs action, but patterns do. Group feedback by themes like product friction, unmet needs, or messaging gaps. Rank them against metrics that matter like conversion, retention, or CSAT so teams focus on what moves the needle, not just what’s loud.
Share VoC insights in the tools and channels your teams already use. Product managers shouldn’t have to dig through a dashboard to find what users want. Push insights into Slack, Asana, or your project management tool. The faster feedback reaches decision-makers, the faster it turns into real outcomes.
Turn customer feedback into your next advantage
If you’ve made it this far, one thing is clear — your team is ready to do more than just listen. Building a voice of the customer program isn’t about more surveys or dashboards. It’s about creating a repeatable system that turns feedback into action and aligns every team around what customers actually need.
Start by auditing your current feedback channels, identify where the gaps are, and run a focused pilot to test what works. Use the free VoC template to kickstart that process and structure your first feedback loop.
You can also map insights to key business goals, and bring customer context into every decision, whether you’re refining a feature, launching a campaign, or improving CX. The sooner you operationalize your customers’ voices, the faster you’ll see results that matter: higher retention, stronger loyalty, and smarter decisions across the board.