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Voice of the Customer Tool
Choose whom to interview, run the conversations with a ready guide, record what you hear, and see which unmet needs come up most, in your customers' own words.
This tool also runs as a stage in two playbooks, which take you through several tools in order:
- Reduce customer churn Stage 3 of 5: why customers leave Start at stage 1
- Validate a business idea Stage 1 of 5: what customers actually say Start at stage 1
Not following the playbook? Use this tool on its own instead
Not following the playbook?
Detractors from your survey
Unhappy current customers
Customers who are still with you but unhappy show what may push the next ones out. A satisfaction survey finds them: the people who score you 0 to 6 out of 10 on "would you recommend us?", called detractors. If you have run one, analyze it in stage 2 and its detractors appear here, or . Otherwise, add unhappy customers you know of to the list below and tick "These are unhappy current customers".
Customers who canceled
Paste or upload a list of customers who left in the last few months: an ID, name or email per line is enough. A cancellation date, plan or reason helps.
No one chosen yet.
Your interview notes never leave your browser
Names, notes and quotes stay on your computer and in your progress file. To write the diagnosis, only the count of conversations behind each need is sent to our server. How it works
Record the conversations
The interview guide (open it before each call)
Opening
"Thanks for making time. I'm not calling to sell anything or change your mind; I'd like to understand what happened, so we can fix it for others. It will take about 15 minutes. Is it all right if I take notes?"
The three questions
- What happened just before you decided? (for detractors: just before you gave that score)
Follow up: "When was that? What did you expect to happen instead?" - What did you try before deciding?
Follow up: "What happened when you did that? Who did you speak to?" - What would have had to be different for you to stay?
Follow up: "If that had happened, would anything else still have made you leave?"
If they say "I don't know"
- Move from why to when: "When did you first think about leaving?"
- Anchor it in a week: "What was going on that week? What were you doing when you decided?"
- Ask what they compared: "What did you look at instead of us?"
- If they still can't say, that's an answer too: tick "They couldn't say" and move on.
While you listen
- Ask about the moment of deciding, not about the company in general.
- If they say "price", ask what happened just before the price started to feel too high.
- Don't defend, explain or offer a discount. Note their exact words where you can.
- Close with thanks, and tell them what will happen with what they said.
The interview guide (open it before each conversation)
Opening
"Thanks for making time. I'm not selling anything. I'm trying to understand how you deal with this problem today. It will take about 15 minutes. Is it all right if I take notes?"
The three questions
- When did you last face this problem? What did you do?
Follow up: "Walk me through that day. What happened next?" - What did that cost you, in time or money?
Follow up: "How often does that happen?" - What do you use or pay for today to get it done?
Follow up: "What do you like about it? What annoys you?"
Ask about the past, not your idea
- Not "Would you use a delivery service?" Ask: "When did you last run out of stock? What did you do?"
- Not "Is this a big problem for you?" Ask: "What did that cost you?"
- Not "Would you pay 250 a week?" Ask: "What do you pay today to get this done?"
While you listen
- Don't pitch or describe your idea until the end, if at all.
- When they say they would do something, ask what they did the last time.
- Mark each need: did they do something about it, or only say they would?
- Note their exact words where you can. Talk to strangers who would pay, not friends.
The unmet needs, ranked
A conversation can raise more than one need, so the counts add up to more than the number of conversations.
In their own words
Save your progress
Download your progress file to continue from this point any time, on any computer: choose it under "Coming back?" at the start of the tool. Each new file includes everything so far, including the earlier stages when they are connected, so keep the latest one. Your notes stay in this browser only until you close it.
Not saved yet.
Take your results with you
A PDF management report of the ranked needs and what customers said, without names. The full notes of every conversation are in the progress file.
About the tool
Why it exists
Customers say "price" because it is easy to say
Voice of the Customer means collecting what customers need in their own words, grouping it into needs, and ranking those needs by how often they come up. Asked why they left, most people give the easiest answer. Asked what happened just before they decided, they describe a specific event, and events can be fixed.
This tool helps you choose whom to talk to, gives you an interview guide built around that moment, records each conversation, and ranks the needs behind them. It works on its own, as stage 3 of our customer churn playbook, where it starts from the detractors found in stage 2, and as stage 1 of our playbook for validating a business idea, where each need is marked as something people did or only say they would do. For the method, see our guide to Voice of the Customer.
The method
How the tool works
Choosing whom to talk to. Detractors from a connected survey are listed with their score and comment. Their comments are roughly sorted by keywords into common needs; this is only a first guess, to help you listen for the right things and pick people with different complaints. Customers who canceled come from a list you paste or upload.
Recording. For each conversation you note what happened just before the customer decided, what they tried, what would have had to be different, and the need behind it, chosen from a list of common needs or written in your own words. The grouping is your judgment: the tool doesn't guess it from your notes.
Ranking. Needs are ranked by how many conversations raised them, with customers who canceled and detractors shown separately. With 25 to 35 conversations, read the order as a guide: a need several people raise is real, but a difference of one or two mentions is not.
What leaves your computer. Names, notes and quotes stay in your browser and your progress file. To write the diagnosis, the page sends our server only the number of conversations behind each need, and the server keeps nothing.