Your customers will not tell you the things you need to hear. We will get them to.
Your sales calls have you doing 70% of the talking. Your customer success calls are about renewals. Your win-loss focuses on lost deals. The thing nobody is doing is sitting down with your current happy customers and asking them, properly, why they bought you, why they stayed, and what they tell others. That is voice of customer.
What voice of customer is, and is not
Specifically.
Voice of customer (VoC) is structured qualitative research with your current customers. The output is the exact language they use to describe what you do, why it matters to them, and what alternative they would consider if you went away.
It is not an NPS survey. It is not a CS QBR. It is not a testimonials gathering exercise. Those are useful for other things, they do not produce the strategic input we are after.
The most common use cases are: rewriting messaging because the current copy does not sound like the customer, building case studies that lead with outcomes the customer cares about, finding upsell patterns, and validating expansion into new segments.
How we run a VoC sprint
Same five-step structure as win-loss, different focus.
Customer selection
You give us a list. We aim for 20-30 customers across segments, sizes, and tenure. Mix of new (under 12 months) and established (over 24 months).
Structured interviews
45-60 minute conversations. Same interview guide across all. We focus on the moment they decided to buy, the months before that, who they involved, what they almost did instead.
Verbatim coding
Every transcript is coded against themes. We pull the exact phrases they used. The customer's words become the source material for the next stage of marketing copy.
Pattern synthesis
Themes that appear in 30%+ of conversations. Surprises (anti-patterns where what we expected was not the reason). Quotes ranked by usefulness.
Working session
90-minute session where we walk you through the findings and debate the implications for messaging, positioning, sales enablement, content.
The deliverable
What lands on day 14.
A 25-40 page report covering: top 5 reasons customers actually bought you (in their words), top 3 outcomes they reference (numbers and stories), the 8-12 phrases that appear most often (these become your messaging foundation), the alternatives they considered (the real ones, not the ones on G2), the moment that tipped the decision, and verbatim quotes ranked by usefulness for case studies, sales enablement, and website copy.
When VoC research is overdue
Three signs.
Run VoC when
- Your messaging has not been refreshed in 18+ months.
- You are about to redesign the website or relaunch.
- You suspect the value prop you talk about is not the value customers reference.
- You are entering a new segment and need to know if the messaging carries.
- Sales calls feel inconsistent in how you describe what you do.
Less urgent when
- You ran a comparable exercise in the last 12 months.
- You have under 20 customers (sample too small for patterns).
- You are pre-product-market-fit (find the message first).
- Customer interviews are happening regularly and being analysed.
FAQ
Surveys give you ranked options against the questions you thought to ask. Interviews give you the questions you would not have thought to ask, in the customer's own words. Both have a place. For messaging and positioning work, qualitative wins.
Most happy customers are happy to take a 30-45 minute call. Response rates run 60-75% with a clear ask and a small thank-you. We handle the outreach.
Better if you do not. Customers are noticeably more candid with a third-party researcher than with a vendor. You get full recordings and verbatim transcripts at the end.
£4,500 for a standalone sprint, or bundled at £6,000/month inside a broader Intelligence retainer.
Even better. The conversations with mixed-feelings customers are usually the most valuable. The themes from the negatives become the warning signs to address.
Win-loss focuses on the buying decision (closed-won vs closed-lost). VoC focuses on the value experience (current customers, why they stayed, what they tell others). Different inputs, different outputs.
Want to talk through your situation?
Thirty minutes with the team. We will pressure test your numbers, not pitch.
Book a strategy call →