It wasn’t until a pandemic struck that Coca-Cola HBC realized they were ignoring 80% of their customer’s voices.
Even though they called a sample of their customers each year to ask for feedback, that wasn’t nearly enough to get an accurate picture of customer sentiment.
Surveying 20% of B2B accounts can’t deliver the same insights and opportunities that you should be getting from all of your customers. That’s because each of these complex relationships is unique and requires a trained ear to fully understand insights.
In 2021, Coca-Cola HBC turned to CustomerGauge, the leading voice of the customer (VoC) provider for B2B brands. The brand wanted to use VoC to connect, listen, understand, and act on 100% of feedback from all levels of their customers’ accounts.
As a result, Coca-Cola realized benefits that went far beyond winning awards for customer engagement (although they did that, too). Two years on from changing strategy, their customer-centric approach has resulted in double-digit organic revenue growth and a 4% rise in their share price.
What’s the lesson here? Listening to your customers is the key to growth. But hearing what they say and responding in ways that drive profits is a skill that must be learned.
Luckily, it’s a skill that we can teach you. That’s why in this post we’re sharing our top nine voice of the customer training courses and certifications, so you too can learn how to move the needle on growth.
What to Look For in Voice of the Customer Training Courses
Before taking a look at our favorite voice of the customer training courses, let’s run through the elements you should consider when selecting one for you or your team.
Voice of the customer refers to the collection of processes, tools, systems, and techniques that businesses use to collect sentiment from their customers. Most B2B companies will use a tool such as CustomerGauge to handle the complexities of their customer relationships.
However, it’s not just the tools that matter. That’s why we designed the CustomerGauge Academy to help businesses learn how to approach customers and use their insights for financial growth.
There are three crucial elements needed to make any VoC training course worth your investment and time.
A VoC approach that makes sense for your business. Not every VoC consultant or business views VoC in the same way. Some are rigorous compared to others and will give you more than a run down on the how and why to send customer feedback surveys.
At CustomerGauge, we designed a way to tie your voice of the customer feedback directly to revenue. In all our courses, we teach Account Experience. It’s our methodology for using B2B VoC in ways that drive growth.
An experienced and knowledgeable coach. To get the best from any course you’ll need a knowledgeable trainer. Your VoC trainer should have the right knowledge, inspire confidence, and share their extensive experience in B2B VoC.
Cary T. Self has first-hand experience implementing customer experience programs for various brands. That’s why he’s our Global VP of Education and Services at CustomerGauge.
Certification of your training. Proof of your newly acquired skills is important for career progression, credibility, and customer trust. CustomerGauge offers accreditation for VoC training at every level of a business, from frontline staff to CEOs.
Without further ado, let’s check out the best voice of the customer training courses available.
Top Voice of the Customer Training Courses & Certification
#1 Account Experience B2B CX: Platinum
Designed with program managers in mind, the Account Experience B2B CX Platinum Course covers the ins and outs of building a voice of the customer program from the ground up.
But before you get there, you need to cover the basics. That’s why this comprehensive and detailed course begins with understanding customer loyalty:what it is, why it’s important, and what can be done to increase it.
At the heart of all effective VoC programs lies Net Promoter Score (NPS), the surveying system used to measure customer loyalty. As you’ll learn, this single-question survey lets companies identify their detractors, passives, and promoters, and act on their sentiments. The NPS framework is a thread that runs through the entire Account Experience (AX) certification program.
As learners make their way through this voice of the customer training course to certification, they’ll gather all of the knowledge needed to make their own VoC programs a success.
Platinum Account Experience (B2B CX) Certification course covers:
Achieving Customer Loyalty
Understanding Your AX (B2B CX) Program
Listening to Feedback
Analyzing Results
Closing the Loop
Optimizing Your AX (B2B CX) Program
The comprehensive course content takes between 10 to 12 hours to complete. Supplementary resources from reports to case studies and podcasts total 20 additional hours of materials. This provides a thorough understanding of the intricacies involved in implementing a VoC program, common pitfalls, and best practices for success.
#2 Account Experience B2B CX: Gold
Alternatively, if you’re a C-Suite executive or front-line operative, you’ll need a different approach to VoC and customer loyalty.
You’ll discover exactly what it takes to implement a VoC program and your role in making it a success with this gold-level voice of the customer training course and certification, specifically for B2B businesses.
Executives and front-line employees play different roles in making their organization customer-centric. In this course, executives will learn the importance of commitment, resources, and cross-organizational collaboration in support of the VoC program.
Meanwhile, front-line operatives will learn how to handle support and feedback in ways that enhance AX and move customers from being detractors to becoming active promoters of the business. That means improving financial results, too.
We’ll cover building customer loyalty, the role NPS plays in driving customer satisfaction, and the best steps for closing the loop with customers at their level of the organization.
Platinum Account Experience (B2B CX) Certification course covers:
Achieving Customer Loyalty
Understanding Your AX (B2B CX) Program
Listening to Feedback
Analyzing Results
Closing the Loop
Optimizing Your AX (B2B CX) Program
Course content takes between 6 to 7 hours to complete and has an additional 15 hours of supplemental materials in the form of reports, videos, articles, and podcasts.
#3 Achieving Customer Loyalty: Platinum
While the Account Experience modules cover everything you need to get started, here we focus specifically on loyalty.
The Achieving Customer Loyalty module walks you through the steps of customer loyalty economics and how each element impacts VoC programs. If you’re looking to build loyalty and encourage customers to stay, this will be the course for you.
Different types of customer loyalty impact VoC programs and business revenue in unique ways. While transactional loyalty may not create deep and lasting relationships that benefit you long-term, understanding behavioral loyalty provides managers with an opportunity to track and nudge customers into trying new products or services.
Understanding what customer loyalty is, how it can be nurtured, and the different kinds of influence it can have on your VoC program helps program managers develop customer relationships that create mutual value.
Platinum Achieving Customer Loyalty course covers
What customer loyalty is and why it matters for VoC programs
Customer Lifetime Value: what it is and how to measure it
The three elements of customer referral value and how to capture it
Building customer loyalty
Using the NPS framework to promote greater loyalty
This shorter course takes approximately 1 hour to complete and comes with 3 hours of supplementary materials in the form of case studies, short quizzes to embed new knowledge, and videos from real-world B2B organizations.
What other learners had to say about the Platinum Achieving Customer Loyalty course
“Very informative, I like the mix of media.” - 5-stars from DM
“Fantastic course with lots of real-world examples.” - 5-stars from FM
#4 Achieving Customer Loyalty: Gold
Executive suite and front-line staff have unique roles to play in developing loyalty in B2B accounts. This gold-level course shows these learners exactly what they can do to improve levels of engagement.
Different kinds of loyalty generate different benefits for the business. Learners will come to understand the value of each type of loyalty and what they can do from their level of the organization to develop and nurture customer relationships.
Gold Achieving Customer Loyalty course covers
Customer loyalty
Building customer loyalty
The NPS framework and its relevance to customer loyalty economics
This course takes approximately 1 hour and comes with an additional 3 hours of supporting materials, including case studies, videos, and reports.
#5 Understanding Your B2B CX Program: Platinum
B2B customers want the same streamlined experiences that B2C customers do.
However, very different approach is required to provide that. Understanding the complexities of a B2B CX program and how program champions directly impact its success is crucial to creating streamlined experiences B2B accounts crave.
This one-hour course covers the essentials of B2B CX programs to deliver the foundational knowledge champions needed to turn those programs into a success.
The importance of NPS and how this influences VoC feedback and actions kick off the lessons. Then you’ll cover the importance of customer-centric programs, and the changes a company needs to make for them to be effective.
What’s more, learners will be shown effective techniques for leading change within their organizations. You’ll also come to understand how to establish the right support so their program has the greatest chance of success.
Finally, the course ends with a close look at customer journey mapping and how this can be used to continually improve VoC initiatives.
Platinum Understanding Your B2B CX Program course covers:
NPS programs: what they are and how to lead changes within your organization
Organizational buy-in: why this is crucial for the success of customer-centric initiatives
Customer Journey mapping: what it is and how to use it for continual improvement
The course is supplemented with 3 hours of additional materials, including reports, case studies, and short quizzes that help learners embed new knowledge.
What other learners had to say about the Understanding Your B2B CX Program course
“Such a wealth of knowledge in [these] lessons. I really enjoyed the first-hand experience related to the Monetize snippets.” 5 stars from MK
“I want to know more about the journey mapping process.” 4 stars from SD
#6 Listening to Feedback: Platinum
A key element of voice of the customer programs is listening. Asking for feedback and not listening is only going to irritate customers.
However, just as there are different types of feedback, there are different ways to listen to customers. The Platinum Listening to Feedback course is for program champions who want to make the most of the gift of feedback and use it to turn their VoC programs into a resounding success.
Listening to feedback is crucial for the success of any customer-centric initiative, as Cary T. Self explains:
“When a customer has a pain point or thinks that something can be better and then they are brave enough to share that feedback, there's now this responsibility to take that feedback and turn it into a solution or an answer. And I think this is where most companies sway way off the road.
“There's customers beating the drum with feedback on all different channels. Social media surveys, data usage logins… These are all different channels of feedback. And if we're not listening to those channels and doing something about that, we are completely ignoring our customers and their lifetime value to us.”
Platinum Listening to Feedback course covers
Using surveys to listen and aligning survey strategies with the customer journey
Different types of surveys (Relational vs. Transactional)
Optimizing response rates
What other learners had to say about the Platinum Listening to Feedback course
“Very helpful. A lot of beneficial information.” 5 stars from RH
“As someone who has never implemented a survey strategy, this is very helpful in understanding best practices.” 5 stars from TC
#7 Analyzing Results: Platinum
Collecting and listening to your customer’s feedback is just the beginning of any good VoC program. Once the data is in, a thorough analysis is required to be able to gain insights and determine the best course of action to take.
Whether feedback is positive or negative, all of it’s valuable and worthy of understanding. The Platinum course on Analyzing Results gives program champions and creators an in-depth understanding of the best methods for analyzing different kinds of feedback.
NPS detractors often provide the most valuable feedback because they’re invested in sharing their experience with you. Understanding this and how to analyze their data is crucial for getting the most benefit from VoC programs. The different drivers behind the feedback gathered often point to the appropriate action that needs to be taken.
Platinum Analyzing Results course covers
Analytical approaches
Descriptive vs Inferential statistics
Stated driver analysis
Descriptive and inferential drivers and their statistical significance
The course content takes approximately 1.5 hours to complete and is supplemented with 2.5 hours of additional content in the form of case studies, reports, and guides.
What other learners had to say about the Analyzing Results course
- “The examples were helpful. The theory was tough to get through at times.” 4 stars from RC
#8 Closing the Loop: Gold
After asking, listening, and analyzing the voice of the customer, it’s time to close the loop and respond thoughtfully and thoroughly to feedback.
Closing the loop is the responsibility of employees at all levels of an organization. This Closing the Loop course clarifies each employee's role and responsibilities for acting on feedback effectively.
Executive members play a role in ensuring cross-organizational collaboration is efficient and flowing unhindered. Front-line executives and account managers must be empowered when responding to customer criticism and compliments.
Even when the feedback has been less than complimentary, closing the loop generates better results. In fact, our data shows that by closing the loop, you can increase your number of promoters by 3x.
Closing the Loop course covers
Closing the Loop: what it is and why it is necessary
Closing the loop at the front line
Closing the loop at the executive level
This course takes approximately 1 hour to complete and is supplemented by 3.5 hours of additional materials to deepen the learner’s understanding. Short quizzes along the way help to embed knowledge and the multimedia approach to content keeps lessons engaging.
#9 Optimizing Your AX (B2B CX) Program: Platinum
It’s not enough to create a VoC program and rest on your laurels. Eventually, it will lose momentum and lose the effect on customer relationships that it should. Continual improvement enhances customer engagement and delivers results that positively impact a company’s bottom line.
VoC programs that are linked to revenue help champions prioritize what is most important for the business and its customers. What’s more, linking Voice of the Customer programs to ROI embeds it in the business strategy so the right metrics are always given appropriate focus.
As Cary notes,
“We tie loyalty to customer lifetime value. We do that because at the end of the day, we're trying to create loyalty to generate revenue and income. There's no doubt about it. We believe in that. We do think it's the right thing to do.”
The Optimizing Your AX (B2B CX) Program platinum course gives managers the tactics and tools they need for getting the very best from their initiative and driving tangible results for the business.
Measuring performance, benchmarking against competitors, and considering company culture are crucial elements for driving the success of any VoC program. Learning how to set targets and use them to optimize specific elements of a VoC program will set champions up for continued success.
Platinum Optimizing Your AX (B2B CX) Program course covers
Optimizing: what to measure and how to monetize NPS
Optimizing based on competitors
Optimizing with consideration to company culture
Optimizing with targets
Learners will get the most from this course by completing the Achieving Customer Loyalty, Understanding your AX (B2B CX) Program, Listening to Feedback, Analyzing Results, and Closing the Loop courses first.
Course content takes approximately 1 hour to complete and a further 2 hours of supplementary materials are included.
What other learners had to say about the Optimizing Your AX (B2B CX) Program Platinum course:
- “Terrific content!” 5 stars from RC
Which VoC Course Is Right for You?
A successful VoC program will set you apart from your competition.
The first step? Gaining the tools you need to understand how to secure customer loyalty, build stronger relationships, and grow your number of promoters.
Learn everything you need at the CustomerGauge Academy —explore our VoC training courses now!
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