What does VoC mean in Trend Analysis

Trend analysis is a type of technical analysis that tries to predict the trajectory of a set of outcomes that will move in the future by looking at how it has moved in the past.

It takes into account the past trends data, the factors that might have resulted in the changes in previous movements, and relationships between various direct and indirect factors to predict the long-term direction of market sentiment.

Voice of the Customer is fast becoming one of the most important components of corporate trend analysis initiatives, given its versatility and high-grade insights.

It is a part of customer experience management, a segment that is likely to grow from $11.34 billion in 2022 to $ 32.53 billion in 2029, registering a (CAGR) of 16.2%.

As a business, it is necessary to be aware of the trajectory of the market, but being consistently accurate at predicting future trends requires much more than reading a few industry reports.

You need to deploy sophisticated tools and techniques for gathering trend analysis feedback.

Often, businesses need to tailor Voice of the Customer trend analysis solutions to avail the full potential of such analytics.

VoC is an important yet less-explored factor for driving customer experience and customer loyalty.

However, VoC is not just about emotions and affinities but also about various methods through which data is sourced and analyzed, apart from insights generation and rendering (viz., Data visualization.)

In this article, I will walk you through the basics of Voice of the Customer in trends analysis and how you can use VoC surveys to understand your customers.

Let’s begin.

Getting a better understanding of Voice of the Customer Trend Analysis

For VoC trend analysis, business data is captured over time to make comparisons between stimulus, correlationships, and results.

Based on the conditions and parameters identified, VoC trend analysis helps develop plans and strategies for future trends.

But how do you get started with VoC trend analysis?

Key performance indicators (KPIs), i.e., the factors that contribute to your overall success, are a good place to start when looking at trends.

What are KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) when it comes to Voc trend analysis

KPIs with respect to trend analysis include factors that impact sales, costs, marketing ROI, customer ratings, retention rates, and customer acquisition.

For instance, if you want to analyze sales trends for an upcoming product, you must keep an eye on the KPIs that reflect what’s going on in your business, like:

• The Category, subcategory of similar best-selling products
• The margins you can get at different sales volumes
• Performance of your sales team for the respective product class
• Current conversion rate, the retention rate for the product category
• Reviews of customers on various products sold by your competitors
• Popular payment methods for the target audience
• Organic engagement of target audience on different product-related content pieces of social media, review websites

These trends will have a direct impact on your proposed product’s metrics and qualities like:

• COGS
• Logistics and distribution
• Sales
• Overheads
• Taxation
• Product design
• Product-market fit

Thus, the voice of the customer helps create a 360-degree picture when trend analysis is concerned, as it fills the gaps between business performance metrics and organizational metrics.

How to develop a Voice of the Customer trend analysis system

You can develop actionable insights about VoC trends by tracking your company’s performance on various customer-related metrics over time.

This information may then be used to improve your marketing strategy and budgeting.

Voice of the Customer trend analysis stages

You can create an efficient trend analysis system by:

Preparing the basis for analysis: Start by identifying what performance data and results you will study and analyze

Create benchmarks: Next, you must determine the degree of variation that is meaningful enough to be noted.

For instance, a 20% change in average reviews within a month can be a noteworthy variation as compared to a 2% change within a month or a 20% change in 2 years.

Implement VoC software: Based on the first two steps, you must develop a customized VoC software and deploy it for collecting and analyzing VoC data from across different platforms.

You may take the help of a business consultant in case software development isn’t your core business area.

Leverage your experience to study the VoC analysis results: Instead of taking the VoC analysis results at face value, you must investigate why trends occurred so that you may use this knowledge for future decision-making.

Your experience will play a crucial role in how well you utilize VoC trend analysis results.

Using a dedicated Voice of the Customer solution

You must deploy a dedicated VoC solution to ensure that the methods applied and the results generated are relevant and useful to your organization.

Also, make sure you and your employees are on the same page when it comes to implementing a set of processes inspired by your VoC tool.

In order to ensure that the business data is gathered and analyzed in a timely, effective manner, your VoC tool should:

Ensure all customer interactions are well documented– including engagement on social media, VoIP, emails, rating websites, and CRM.

Analyze key decision parameters– including pricing, product knowledge, brand awareness, and more.

Control data collection– depending on the platform and type of data, it must be pulled on a regular intervals/real-time basis.

Maintain data integrity– create definitions for all deliverables, variations, assumptions, and conclusions for VoC data.

VoC data storage– the data must be stored in an understandable format, and your VoC tool must be able to export it to software like Word or Spreadsheet.

Enable collaboration– your VoC tool must foster collaboration among different stakeholders of your organization and democratize VoC insights for the maximum benefit of all parties involved.

Limitations of VoC trend analysis

Keep in mind that there are times when VoC trend analysis can be partially or fully ineffective.

Here are several examples:

• When there is a dramatic change in circumstances, past data may no longer be applicable.
• Your trend analysis models may require updates based on shifting societal norms, shifts in people’s aspirations, economy.
• New factors are making an impact on VoC trends.

Summing Up

As a matter of fact, VoC is emerging as a broader subcategory of trend analysis which is generally considered from a finance point of view.

When considering business strategy, VoC trend analysis can act as both your robust feedback mechanism and guiding light.

However, it must be noted that VoC trend analysis should be used in combination with other approaches like sales demand forecasting and financial metrics to get a coherent idea of your business.

If you are looking for a Voice of the Customer trend analysis solution, feel free to get in touch with The X Future.