Speak to anyone in customer experience, research, or marketing, and they'll tell you that the old model of one-way customer communication is outdated. Today's market leaders need strategies to engage more effectively with their audiences in a two-way dialogue. That’s where AI-driven voice of customer tools can help, enabling a more dynamic, interactive, and personalized approach.

Voice of customer tools are sophisticated systems and software designed for a specific purpose: to capture, analyze, and act on customer feedback. And with generative AI transforming contact center operations, VoC tools are shaping the future of customer experience.

What is voice of the customer (VoC)?

Voice of the customer refers to gathering insights about what customers say about a company, its products, or services. It's like having a direct line to your customer's thoughts and feelings, giving you the insights to make informed decisions.

But VoC is about more than just collecting data. You also need to understand what the data says. It involves analyzing customer feedback from surveys, social media, customer service interactions, or other channels and turning it into actionable insights.

Discover the top voice of the customer best practices.

How VoC tools work

Voice of the customer tools offer a way to gather feedback and use it effectively to build stronger relationships, enhance satisfaction, and boost sales. 

VoC tools perform three primary actions:

1. Collecting Customer Data

VoC tools streamline the process of gathering and analyzing customer data, compared to traditional methods. They capture insights from direct surveys, customer interviews, social media comments, and support interaction notes, covering all touchpoints and sources more efficiently. In fact, Gartner forecasts that by 2025, 60% of organizations using VoC tools will analyze voice and text interactions to supplement traditional customer surveys. 

Chatbots, for example, automate responses to common questions and alert team members when human intervention is needed. This system effectively collates data from customer interactions in real-time, providing a rich source of insights.

2. Analyzing Data

Once data is collected, VoC solutions employ advanced analytics to sift through this information. With the help of analytics tools such as sentiment analysis and natural language processing, VoC software detects patterns and trends in customer behavior and opinions. This step is crucial for understanding what customers are doing or saying and why they're doing it.

3. Generating Actionable Insight

The real power of VoC tools lies in their ability to turn analysis into action. By synthesizing data into clear insights, these solutions help businesses identify specific areas needing improvement. Whether refining product features, tweaking service protocols, or altering communication strategies, AI-powered VoC analytics guides businesses in making informed decisions to enhance the customer experience.

Types of voice of the customer tools

Voice of the customer tools are classified into:

Customer journey VoC tools

With conversation intelligence, you blend customer journey mapping with reporting and analytical capabilities, enhancing contact center operations and customer experience management. Customer journey VoC tools leverage AI to track and analyze the customer journey across various touchpoints with your business. They map out how customers interact with different services and products and provide insights into the overall customer experience. 

Automation VoC tools 

These tools initiate automatic responses to customer feedback. For example:

• Scheduling appointments for customers who have encountered issues 

• Managing extensive marketing campaigns informed by direct customer feedback

With automation VoC tools, you streamline and optimize responses to customer interactions, making the process more efficient and targeted.

Reporting and analytical VoC tools

Analytical VoC tools leverage AI to gather crucial data such as customer effort and satisfaction, helping CX teams to identify patterns and trends that might be missed by manual analysis.

A prime example is conversation analytics solutions that aggregate data from various channels, including phone calls, chats, surveys, emails, and social media. They use customer sentiment and emotion analysis and automated scoring to offer a detailed and comprehensive perspective on experiences — on a centralized dashboard.

Why AI-driven voice of the customer tools are the future of CX

Leveraging AI in CX reflects a deeper shift in customer engagement, focusing on responsive, two-way interactions essential for business growth and customer satisfaction. According to a Salesforce report, 53% of customers believe that generative AI will enable companies to serve their customers more effectively.

AI algorithms sift through massive amounts of data to identify trends and sentiments that would be impossible for humans to analyze manually. With AI-powered conversation intelligence (CI) platforms such as Echo AI, businesses deeply understand and effectively respond to customer needs, enhancing customer satisfaction and business success.

Here’s the critical role that AI-driven VoC tools play in:

• Sentiment analysis: Echo AI's CI platform employs Gen AI to automatically interpret the tone and sentiment of agent interactions. You’re able to analyze feedback on specific products or services, enabling you to anticipate future customer preferences and behaviors directly related to VoC.
  
  

• Trendspotting and predictive analysis: Insight Streams by Echo AI function as autonomous analysts. These AI agents review conversations, extract key insights, identify trends, and predict future behaviors. For instance, analyzing responses to new products or promotions, categorizing feedback into themes, and summarizing these into actionable insights. This dynamic analysis allows for real-time trend spotting and predictive analysis.
  
  

• Quality management: AI-enabled QA management automates evaluating customer service interactions across various channels like email, chat, and phone. It includes features like automatic assignments, phrase tracking, and root-cause analysis.
  
  

• Real-time feedback and data-driven decisions: Echo AI's AI-native platform specifically caters to VoC, allowing companies to gain full visibility into customer interactions. Businesses are able to uncover trends and deliver targeted coaching, enhancing agent performance and customer experience.

Enhance your CX with Echo AI’s VoC solutions

Echo AI's Conversation Intelligence platform fully integrates AI, reshaping how businesses interact with and understand their customers. Our software enables real-time, targeted feedback, trend identification, and data-driven decision-making by providing complete visibility into customer interactions. This way, customer voices are not only heard but also acted upon effectively.

Let’s help you improve call center agent performance. Request a Echo AI demo today.