[GTM glossary](/glossary.md) Voice of the customer Marketing # Voice of the customer (VoC) In short Voice of the customer (VoC) is the structured practice of collecting what customers say and feel about their needs, problems, and experience with your company, then using it to make decisions. The input comes from interviews, surveys, support tickets, sales calls, and reviews. It matters most when the language is kept intact. Customers’ exact words often make better headlines, emails, and talk tracks than internal jargon. ## Sources of VoC data * **Customer interviews:** Open conversations about why they bought and what changed. * **Surveys:** Net promoter score, satisfaction, and open-text questions. * **Sales and support conversations:** Call recordings, notes, and tickets show real objections and requests. * **Reviews and community posts:** Unprompted comments on review sites and forums. * **Win and loss interviews:** Why deals closed or did not. --- ## How to run a VoC program * **Set a question:** Decide what you need to learn, such as why customers choose you. * **Collect from several sources:** One channel gives a skewed view. * **Tag and group themes:** Sort comments by topic and note how often each appears. * **Keep verbatim quotes:** Save exact phrases for copy and decks. * **Share and act:** Send findings to product, marketing, sales, and support with clear actions. --- ## An example Say a team reviews twenty recent sales calls and notices prospects keep saying they are "tired of chasing updates". The website says "streamline workflow visibility". The team rewrites the headline using the buyer’s phrase and watches whether conversion improves. The change comes from listening, not guessing. --- ## VoC vs. market research Market research often studies a broad market and trends. VoC focuses on your own customers and prospects and their direct feedback. They complement each other, but VoC is closer to day-to-day messaging and product choices. --- ## Common mistakes * **Collecting without acting:** Feedback that goes unused erodes trust. * **Asking leading questions:** They return the answers you expected. * **Listening only to happy customers:** Include churned customers and lost deals. * **Paraphrasing away the language:** Keep the exact words customers use. --- ## Voice of the customer FAQs **What is voice of the customer (VoC)?** Voice of the customer is the practice of gathering and analyzing what customers say about their needs, problems, and experiences, using sources like interviews, surveys, support tickets, and sales calls, and then applying it to messaging, product, and service decisions. **How do you collect voice of the customer data?** Use several sources: customer interviews, surveys with open-text questions, sales and support conversations, reviews, and win and loss interviews. Combining sources gives a balanced picture, and saving customers’ exact words helps when writing copy and sales talk tracks. **Why is voice of the customer important in marketing?** It shows what buyers actually care about and how they describe their problems. Messaging built from customer language tends to be clearer than internal jargon, and the findings help product, sales, and support teams prioritize the issues that matter to buyers. **What is the difference between voice of the customer and market research?** Market research usually studies a broad market, competitors, and trends. Voice of the customer centers on direct feedback from your own customers and prospects about their needs and experience. The two complement each other, with VoC closer to daily messaging and product choices. Share term --- ## More related phrases * [Drivers of choice](/glossary/drivers-of-choice.md) * [Market intelligence](/glossary/market-intelligence.md) * [Market research](/glossary/market-research.md) ## Similar phrases * [Messaging strategy](/glossary/messaging-strategy.md) A messaging strategy is the set of decisions about what to say, to whom, and in which order, so communication supports positioning and moves buyers to act. * [Buyer persona](/glossary/buyer-persona.md) A buyer persona is a research-based profile of the people who research, influence, and approve a purchase, including their goals, challenges, and objections. * [Persona map](/glossary/persona-map.md) A persona map links the roles inside a target account to their goals, concerns, and influence on a purchase, so teams know who to contact and what to say. * [Value proposition](/glossary/value-proposition.md) A value proposition is a clear statement of the specific benefit a product delivers to a defined customer and why it is better than the alternatives they have. * [Feedback marketing](/glossary/feedback-marketing.md) Feedback marketing is the practice of collecting customer and prospect feedback, then using it to shape messaging, campaigns, and product positioning, and to prove credibility with new buyers.