--- title: "Voice of the customer: a lightweight program and template" description: "What a voice of the customer program covers, what each feedback source misses, and a lightweight template to copy, with no enterprise platform." url: "https://raconte.ai/en/blog/voice-of-the-customer" --- # Voice of the customer: how to run a program without an enterprise platform What a voice of the customer program covers, what each feedback source misses, and a lightweight template to copy, with no enterprise platform. October 13, 2026 Godefroy Key takeaways * A voice of the customer program collects what customers say in their own words, turns it into a ranked list of needs, acts on that list and tells customers what changed. * Support tickets, reviews, surveys and interviews each leave out a group of customers or a kind of answer, so a program needs at least two of them. * People say about three times more words out loud than they type in an open survey box, where nobody asks a follow-up question. * A small company can run the program with one owner, one shared table, two sources and a monthly cycle. * Close the loop twice: answer the customer who raised the problem, then fix its cause for everyone else. Voice of the customer (VoC) is what customers say about their needs, in their own words, once it has been collected, organised and ranked by importance. A voice of the customer program makes that work a routine, with an owner and a calendar, then decides what changes and tells customers what was done. You can run one with a shared table, the sources you already have and about twenty interviews a month. This page gives the template to copy. An enterprise platform becomes worth its price once several channels, countries and teams have to feed the same system. ## What a voice of the customer program covers The term comes from product development. Abbie Griffin, then a marketing professor at the University of Chicago, and John Hauser, a marketing professor at MIT, gave it its [reference definition](https://mitsloan.mit.edu/shared/ods/documents?PublicationDocumentID=5259) in a 1993 article in Marketing Science. For them, the voice of the customer is a set of customer needs, stated in the customer’s own words, organised into a hierarchy and ranked by importance. Their method has three tasks: identify the needs, structure them, and set priorities. Customer experience teams later extended the term to every channel where a customer speaks, such as surveys, support calls and public reviews. Six Sigma uses it too. In the Define phase of a Six Sigma project, each customer statement is translated into a measurable requirement called critical to quality (CTQ). Product development, customer experience and Six Sigma all start from the customer’s sentence and keep it attached to the decision it led to. A program does four things on a schedule: * it collects what customers say, from several sources * it turns their sentences into needs and ranks them * it decides what changes, with a named owner for each decision * it tells customers what was done A score such as NPS is one input of the program. It moves when something changed, but it [says little about the reason behind the change](/en/blog/customer-satisfaction-survey). ## Four sources of customer voice, and what each one misses Four sources feed most programs. Each one leaves out a group of customers or a kind of answer. Source What it gives you Who or what is missing Support tickets A real episode, dated, in the customer’s words The customers who gave up without writing Public reviews The words customers use to recommend you or warn against you Everyone between delighted and furious Surveys A score you can track across the whole base The reason behind the score Interviews The reason, because someone asks the follow-up question Volume, since each interview takes a person and a slot Tickets and reviews cost only the time to read them, like the [other evidence a company already holds](/en/blog/customer-research-methods), sales calls and product analytics included. Customers choose the subject, though, so the question you care about may never come up. A survey puts your question to everyone. Keep it short and tie it to one moment, with a [feedback form built for that moment](/en/blog/customer-feedback-form). Surveys alone are losing ground inside VoC programs. Gartner, the research firm, predicted in February 2022 that by 2025, 60% of organisations with a voice of the customer program would [supplement their surveys by analysing voice and text interactions](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/gartner-predicts-by-2025--60--of-organizations-with-voice-of-the) with customers. Its analysts wrote that surveys are perceived to bring less value than other ways of collecting customer voice. Interviews give you the reason. Twenty to thirty of them bring out 90% to 95% of the needs of one customer segment, according to Griffin and Hauser. They are also the source teams drop first, because every interview needs someone on the call. A program therefore needs at least two sources: one that reaches everybody, and one that explains. ![Four sources of customer voice and what each one misses: support tickets, public reviews, surveys and interviews](/.netlify/images?url=_astro%2Fvoc-sources-en.CBnngSQN.jpg&w=1376&h=768&dpl=6ad1cc428d394a5c89e0155b) ## A typed verbatim says less than a spoken one A verbatim is a customer’s sentence, kept word for word. Most programs collect theirs in the comment box of a survey, which is the question customers skip most. The Pew Research Center measured [18% nonresponse on open-ended questions against 1% to 2% on closed ones](https://www.pewresearch.org/decoded/2021/10/14/why-do-some-open-ended-survey-questions-result-in-higher-item-nonresponse-rates-than-others/), across 92 questions put to its American Trends Panel between 2018 and 2021. The answers that do come in are short. Timo Lenzner, a survey methodologist at GESIS, the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, and his co-authors asked 1,001 smartphone respondents in Germany the same open questions, by voice for some and by keyboard for others. They published [the comparison of spoken and typed answers](https://academic.oup.com/jssam/article/12/5/1295/7726361) in 2024. Spoken answers averaged 44 words and typed ones 14. Of course, speaking has a cost too. In the same study, 39% of the people asked to speak gave no answer, against 8% of the people asked to type. A microphone button under a written question puts many people off. The study did not test a conversation, where someone asks the next question. That next question matters more than the word count. A typed “too expensive” ends there. Out loud, the follow-up comes straight away: compared with what, and at which moment did the price become a problem? A product team can act on the answer to that second question. You get far more from the same [open-ended questions](/en/blog/open-ended-questions-qualitative-research) when someone asks them out loud. Several [voice survey tools](/en/blog/top-voice-survey-tools) now record the spoken answer or hold the conversation. ## A lightweight program, with no enterprise platform Large companies use a voice of the customer platform such as Qualtrics or Medallia to run one program across their stores, call centres and digital channels, with dashboards, alerts and case management. Both are sold by quote. Vendr, a marketplace that negotiates software contracts, reports a [median Qualtrics contract](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/qualtrics) of $30,000 a year across 322 purchases, in a range from about $7,000 to $139,000 (figures from October 2026). That price makes sense when thousands of answers a week have to reach hundreds of employees. We described both platforms next to [lighter customer feedback tools](/en/blog/top-customer-feedback-tools). A company with one product and a few hundred or a few thousand customers can run the program with an owner, a shared table, two sources and a monthly cycle. 1. In the first week, tag last month’s tickets and reviews by theme, and note the survey score for each segment. 2. In the second week, pick the one or two themes you cannot explain and interview ten to twenty customers about them. 3. In the third week, write each need in the table with its verbatim, rank the needs, and give each one an owner and a decision. 4. In the fourth week, answer the customers concerned and publish what changed. ```mermaid graph TD A["Week 1: tag tickets and reviews, note the score"] --> B["Week 2: interview 10 to 20 customers on the unexplained theme"] B --> C["Week 3: rank the needs, name an owner, decide"] C --> D["Week 4: answer customers, publish what changed"] D --> A ``` Tagging goes faster with a fixed list of themes, built the way you build the codes of a [thematic analysis](/en/blog/thematic-analysis). Lightweight programs usually stall in the second week, because twenty interviews mean twenty slots and someone to run them. We built [Raconte](/en) for that week. You write the interview once as a brief and send a link by email, in bulk if needed. Each customer opens it in a browser and talks to an AI for a few minutes when it suits them. The AI asks a follow-up question when an answer stays vague. Each interview comes back with its transcript, its audio, a summary and per-message sentiment. ![A Raconte interview transcript, with the summary and the sentiment of each message](/.netlify/images?url=_astro%2Fapp-transcript-en.BXL6fc9U.png&w=1920&h=1200&dpl=6ad1cc428d394a5c89e0155b) Raconte shows its results one interview at a time. It has no dashboard that aggregates a whole study and no file export. To compare twenty interviews, you go through the API, or through the [MCP server](/en/docs/mcp), which lets an AI assistant read the transcripts and fill the table with you. Interviews run in English and French only. You still need a support tool and a survey next to Raconte. The first 60 interview minutes each month are free. Twenty ten-minute interviews make 200 minutes, so the other 140 cost $16.80 at [$0.12 a minute](/en/pricing). ## A lightweight voice of the customer template The template has two parts: a one-page program sheet, and a log, the table every verbatim goes into. Copy both into a spreadsheet or a shared document. The program sheet fits in six lines. Field What to write Example Owner The one person who runs the cycle Head of customer success Question of the month The one thing you want explained Why do accounts stop after the first export? Sources At least two, one that reaches everyone and one that explains Support tickets and 15 interviews Segment One homogeneous group per cycle Agencies under 20 people Calendar The dates of the four steps Read on the 1st, interview by the 15th, decide on the 22nd, reply by the 30th Review Who sees the ranked needs, and when Product meeting, last Thursday of the month The log has nine columns, shown here with two invented rows. Date Source Segment Verbatim Need Times heard Owner Decision Customer told 3 Oct Interview Agency, 12 people ”I export, then I redo the totals by hand because the client wants them by project.” Get totals per project in the export 7 of 15 interviews Product Planned for November Yes, 24 Oct 7 Oct Support ticket Freelancer ”Where do I change the invoice address? I looked for ten minutes.” Find the billing settings without searching 11 tickets Support Link added to the account menu Yes, in the ticket reply Three rules keep the table usable: * Copy the verbatim word for word. * Write the need as a benefit for the customer, with no solution in it. “Get totals per project” leaves the product team free to choose how. * Fill the “Customer told” column before you close a row. In the “Times heard” column, count each need one segment at a time. ![The nine columns of a lightweight voice of the customer log: date, source, segment, verbatim, need, times heard, owner, decision, customer told](/.netlify/images?url=_astro%2Fvoc-template-en.D7PVJoBT.jpg&w=1376&h=768&dpl=6ad1cc428d394a5c89e0155b) ## Closing the loop Closing the loop means that feedback comes back to the customer who gave it, as an answer or as a change. Bain & Company, the consulting firm behind the Net Promoter System, splits it into two loops. In the inner loop, the employee who received the feedback calls or writes back to that customer and fixes what can be fixed on the spot. The [outer loop](https://www.bain.com/insights/the-net-promoter-systems-outer-loop/) handles the problems no single employee or team can solve. Rob Markey, a partner at Bain, writes that they require changes to policies, processes, technology, pricing or product features, which a dedicated team ranks and hands to senior executives. In a lightweight program, the inner loop is a reply within a few days to every customer who reported a problem, sent by the person who read it. The outer loop is the monthly review, where each ranked need gets an owner and a decision, including the decision to do nothing. Markey wants employees to understand why an issue they raised was left aside. Give customers the same explanation. Check the “Customer told” column at every review. When it is empty, the customer who took the time to explain still believes nobody read them. Then tell everyone else. One line in the release notes or the newsletter is enough: “You told us the export lacked totals per project. They have been in it since Monday.” ## Where to start Open a table with the nine columns and fill it with last month’s support tickets. Pick the theme that comes up often and that you cannot explain, then ask fifteen customers of one segment about it, with an [interview guide](/en/blog/interview-guide) written around that single question. If nobody on the team has the hours for fifteen calls, [create a free Raconte account](/en) and send the interview as a link. The first 60 minutes each month are free, with no card. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is meant by voice of the customer? Voice of the customer (VoC) is what customers say about their needs, in their own words, once it has been collected, organised and ranked by importance. The definition comes from a 1993 article by Abbie Griffin and John Hauser. A voice of the customer program repeats that work on a schedule and adds two steps: deciding what changes, and telling customers what was done. ### What is the voice of the customer method? The method has three tasks: identify customer needs from interviews and other sources, structure those needs into a hierarchy, and rank them by importance. Griffin and Hauser found that twenty to thirty interviews bring out 90% to 95% of the needs of one customer segment. ### What is VoC in Six Sigma? In Six Sigma, the voice of the customer is collected in the Define phase of a project. Each customer statement is translated into a measurable requirement, called critical to quality (CTQ), which the rest of the project then measures and improves. ### What is a good VoC score? A voice of the customer program has no score of its own. Teams track NPS, CSAT or CES inside it, three scores that measure different things: intent to recommend, satisfaction with one interaction and the effort a journey took. Compare your score with its own past values rather than with a universal threshold, and check how many rows of your table end with a decision and a customer who was told. ### What are VoC platforms, and do you need one? A voice of the customer platform, such as Qualtrics or Medallia, collects feedback on every channel of a large company and routes it to the right teams, with dashboards, alerts and case management. Both are sold by quote. A company with one product and one or two channels can start with a shared table, its support tickets and a monthly round of interviews. ### What are examples of voice of the customer? Examples include a support ticket that describes where a customer got stuck, a public review, a comment typed in a survey, and a sentence from an interview or from a recorded sales call. Each one counts as voice of the customer once it is kept word for word and linked to a need, such as “get totals per project in the export”. Ready to launch your first interview? Describe your interview, share the link: an AI agent runs it by voice with each participant. You get back the transcript and analysis. [Try for free](/login) ## Continue reading [![Customer research methods: 11 options and when to use each](/.netlify/images?url=_astro%2Fthumbnail.fmVXyksE.jpg&w=1376&h=768&dpl=6ad1cc428d394a5c89e0155b) September 25, 2026 ## Customer research methods: 11 options and when to use each Eleven customer research methods sorted by the moment in the customer relationship, from support tickets to win-loss and churn interviews, and how to pick one. ](/en/blog/customer-research-methods)[![Best customer feedback tools 2026: 11 tools compared](/.netlify/images?url=_astro%2Fthumbnail.BEBgL6FX.jpg&w=1376&h=768&dpl=6ad1cc428d394a5c89e0155b) October 4, 2026 ## Best customer feedback tools 2026: 11 tools compared We compared 11 customer feedback tools across interviews, surveys, in-app prompts and VoC platforms: who asks the follow-up, what it costs, how to plug it in. ](/en/blog/top-customer-feedback-tools)[![Customer satisfaction survey: an example and its limits](/.netlify/images?url=_astro%2Fthumbnail.BVaPkpjh.jpg&w=1376&h=768&dpl=6ad1cc428d394a5c89e0155b) August 19, 2026 ## Customer satisfaction survey: an example and its limits A customer satisfaction survey template you can copy, what every question tells you, and the four blind spots of a score out of 10. ](/en/blog/customer-satisfaction-survey)