5 Top Voice of Customer Tools and Softwares

Then there’s the tough reality that not all customers are created equal: you just can’t afford to lose the heavyweights. (Research shows that customer churn costs US companies almost $170 billion a year.)

If you’re a B2B enterprise, you probably know how important it is to meet your customers’ wants and needs, and identify and address their pain points.

One of the most important ways to do this is by implementing a voice of customer (VoC) tool. This software can help you to take the temperature of your customer relationships, which is key to reducing churn, boosting revenue, and ensuring your business’s long-term success.

But finding the voice of customer tool or software that’s right for you can feel overwhelming if you’re just getting started. Fortunately, CustomerGauge is here to help.

Let’s take a look at some of your VoC software options.

What Are Voice of Customer Tools and Why Do You Need One?

Voice of customer analysis tools are software applications that gather insight into your customers’ opinions and experiences.

They make it easy to distribute short and simple surveys that provide useful feedback on what your customers think and feel about your brand, products, or services. This information is then analyzed and distributed to the rest of your team so you can make meaningful decisions that improve your offering and keep your customers happy.

Neglect your customers’ feedback at your peril—especially if you work in the B2B space.

Having a voice of customer application in place can help you to:

• Reduce churn. While many companies have churn rates between 1 and 5%, some B2B brands can suffer from as high as 15% churn. Keeping an eye on your customers through VoC software will help you identify issues before your customers leave.

• Speak to the right people. In B2B scenarios, the different stages in the customer journey might be performed by different people, each of whom can have a different impression of your business. Unlike in B2C, B2B voice of customer is not company-to-person, it’s company-to-company. By tailoring your VoC surveys appropriately, you can identify issues for multiple stakeholders.

• Understand your NPS. By gaining insight into your customers, you can start to get a handle on your Net Promoter Score (NPS). Your NPS is a metric that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction and predicts future revenue growth.

• Correlate revenue with NPS. For B2B brands with high numbers of customers, tying revenue gains to your NPS can be tricky. But you can aggregate the values for detractors, promoters, and passives to show how an increase in NPS can increase your revenue.

Getting a true sense of your NPS with a B2B customer means tracking their satisfaction and experience across every single touchpoint. And that’s where voice of customer insights can help.

What are Common Misconceptions About B2B Voice of Customer Programs?

We asked our VP of Education, Cary T Self, to share his insight on the common misconceptions of VoC systems. As an industry veteran with more than 10 years’ experience in B2B CX, his point of view is invaluable to hear before choosing a B2B voice of customer tool:

“The biggest misconception we hear when talking to B2B companies is that a CX solution will work. The reality is, a business-to-business voice of the customer program is significantly more dynamic than a simple customer experience program,” he said.

“Think of it this way, customer experience is very one dimensional: it usually consists of one person speaking to one person who is there to get feedback and put out a fire. With Account Experience, a B2B Voice of the customer program, companies are able to measure the relationship between multiple departments and multiple levels of an organization.”

These points are critical. If you’re in the B2B space a normal VoC tool won’t work for you. B2B is just more complex, and your NPS program won’t show the truth unless you adapt it to the B2B arena.

Tools like CustomerGauge’s Account Experience are built especially for complex B2B customer relationships.

What are the 5 Best B2B Voice of Customer Tools?

Our list specifically looks at providers that work in B2B contexts, as experience has taught us how different the two are. Working with B2B companies requires a unique approach in terms of both software and methodology.

Here’s a quick summary before we deep dive each tool:

These are the brands that are equipped to help you deliver results.

1. CustomerGauge B2B Voice of Customer Platform

We didn’t put ourselves in first place. Renowned technological research firm Gartner did. In its 2021 Critical Capabilities Report, Gartner announced CustomerGauge as the highest performing VoC vendor in the world for the B2B VoC use case.

Through our Account Experience solution, we help midsize and large B2B organizations capture and distribute customer feedback in real-time—leveraging Net Promoter to do so.. We then take this a step further by examining companies’ NPS scores and tracking them against certain bottom-line metrics.

CustomerGauge stands out with our focus on revenue. We leverage account-based lifecycle tools together with customer experience metrics to help you focus on metrics that matter for tackling churn, identifying upsell opportunities and activating referrals—all with voice of the customer data.

Let’s take a look at some visualizations in our platform that help you.

Our NPS Lifecycle widget above helps you segment your customers according to their responses and their financial spend.

Our NPS SWOT widget above helps you segment your customers according to threat, strength, weakness, and opportunity levels. For example, a high value customer account that has a low NPS score = a threat. This makes it really easy for your account manager or success teams to focus where it matters.

We’re also big believers in closed loop feedback, something that we integrate into our VoC work upfront. Closing the loop involves considering the feedback you’ve received from your customers and acting on it, quickly and effectively. It demonstrates real commitment and care, and can dramatically reduce churn.

Our approach gives you a holistic view of your ongoing cases, and helps you assign cases automatically, track statuses, and time close loops quickly and effectively.

Pro: We have experience in the rollout of large and complex B2B account experience programs among multinational corporates, such as ABInBev, DHL and Philips.

Con: We specialize in B2B rather than B2C (although we think this is a pro, as it means we’re experts in what we do).

What's Unique About How CustomerGauge Helps Companies Build a Voice of Customer program?

Hear from Cary T Self, Industry Veteran and CustomerGauge VP of Education:

“CustomerGauge is able to go beyond just survey responses in a B2B voice of the customer program with metrics like response rate, speed of closing the loop, growth over time, and usage. With this insight, our customers are able to see beyond just one survey response and get a full 360-degree view of all the true indicators of the customer experience.”

Cary goes on to say, “Layer revenue in on top of that, and companies now can quickly see how much each area of their business is contributing or detracting from the overall growth of the company.”

“Another unique benefit that CustomerGauge has helped many companies have exposure to is absence of signal. While so many companies are focused on feedback and data, CustomerGauge’s platform will help identify where there are gaps in engagement from pretty much every metric a company tracks. Here is a little secret… Churn does not come from feedback and data, it comes from a lack of feedback and data.”

2. InMoment

A large-enterprise focused platform, InMoment offers detailed VoC data that covers the whole customer experience. It allows you to take a detailed look into users’ in-app experience so you can get a more comprehensive view of how they’re interacting with your brand. This helps you see where you might improve.

Positive reviews about InMoment focus on the platform’s flexibility, “especially around the ability to design feedback and analysis processes for a very diverse customer audience,” according to one reviewer.

Pros: Excellent support team.

Cons: Some self-service functionality isn’t that user-friendly for non-tech users.

3. Medallia

Medallia is all about making it easy for large companies to capture and make sense of customer data, through strong analysis and prediction systems. Its systems feature AI and machine learning engines that examine incoming data and integrate it with other business applications.

Medallia’s VoC software comprises different layers, allowing you to view a particular customer’s journey in purchasing a product or service. It also lets you group customers depending on certain behaviors, such as whether they made use of a coupon or discount.

Medallia also has prepackaged options that smaller organizations might find useful.

Pro: Advanced technical capabilities.

Con: Slightly more expensive than other tools.

4. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a large and established voice of the customer tool provider that, like InMoment and Medallia, focuses on large enterprises.

Its customer experience management platform, Customer XM, enables users to improve the experience of both customers and employees, and has the ability to analyze and organize structured and unstructured data.

One positive review says, “The Qualtrics Customer XM product has been transformational for our Voice of Member program. The program's powerful insights have helped our organization move from only measuring a few ‘standard’ experience metrics, to having a holistic VoM program within a short period of time.”

Pro: Strong relationships with 200 consultancies and software partners.

Con: Qualtrics is also on the pricey side.

5. Confirmit

Like the other providers listed here, Confirmit can handle large quantities of customer feedback and effectively analyze this information. It supports highly visual reporting techniques that help to guide specific decisions and actions.

Confirmit is a self-service and flexible offering, and includes components for designing and delivering customer surveys, including voice of customer surveys, and integrating this information with other data sources.

Confirmit Horizons is Confirmit’s multi-channel software platform that provides insight into customer experience, voice of the employee and market research.

Pro: Advanced analysis through the Dapresy toolset.

Con: Some users feel that Confirmit doesn’t always innovate quickly enough.

What’s the Next Step in Implementing Your Voice of Customer Tools?

Here’s our guide on How to Implement Net Promoter as your VoC program, and the typical costs involved. We suggest that you choose the provider that feels right for you, and let them guide you through the steps to come.

Although important, voice of customer surveys are just one component of an effective and comprehensive customer experience management strategy. Learn more about the other actions you should take to measure, act—and, if you go with CustomerGauge—monetize your customers’ feedback.

We’re here to make your data work for you and your bottom line. Contact us today to find out more.