Voice of Customer in the Retail Industry – Trends and Best Practices

Customer demand and brand loyalty are the two things that every QSR is greedy for! And rightfully so. It is essential to a restaurant or fast food chain that their standards only keep rising and their demand keeps growing instilling customer retention and brand loyalty. But how do you ensure that your fast food chain is the one that customers are picking over your competitors (which we know is a major challenge in the QSR industry)? The solution to this challenge is Voice of Customer (VoC) research. A feedback-based marketing and customer experience solution extensively used by leading QSR brands in the fast food industry to maintain healthy standards.

How you are being spoken about and addressed by your customers as a QSR brand is imperative to your growth. Positive and negative feedback must be looked at very seriously because it is your one-way ticket to success. With customer demands increasing and their opinions being a factor in whether or not others will try out your product or service it becomes necessary for you to do the right thing. In this case, the right thing is to listen to your customer and utilize their feedback to take action. That is why it becomes imperative to not only consider all types of feedback but also compile them to use in the future as customer data to create a smooth customer journey.

Since dining is such a personal experience with each person having their own unique preferences it is necessary that each customer is treated with utmost care. That can only be done if your QSR staff has existing data to utilize while approaching the omni-channel experience to engage customers. VoC captures all the feedback provided by the customer across all digital platforms in an attempt to assist the restaurant in improving its services and working on problem areas.

What are the types of VoC Feedback?

Since who says what is constantly changing based on the platforms they are using a brand must be able to get feedback from every channel. Compiling that data is also incredibly important. Therefore, there are three types of VoC feedback that QSR brands can take a lead from:

1. Inferred feedback

   An Inferred form of feedback in the voice of customer research in the QSR industry is when observations of the customer and how they interact with the brand across every platform is used to decipher any judgment across different touchpoints.

   Factors to consider during an inferred feedback form of VoC research:

   • How often the customer dines with the fast food chain
   • How many times they request customer service
   • How often and from what channel does the customer interact with the brand

2. Direct Feedback

   The direct feedback form of feedback in a QSR VoC research is when the information is collected at a point where the customer is aware that the brand is listening to them. This can be administered through various methods like:

   • Survey
   • Market research
   • Complaints (written or verbal)
   • Online or offline forum or panel

   Although this maybe the easiest form of collecting such data it does not necessarily happen to be the most effective. This is because you may get customers who are satisfied and dissatisfied. It can be polarizing and therefore difficult to compile and analyze. Moreover, the response rates of direct feedback are usually low and contain only one single interaction with the brand in question.

3. Indirect feedback

   This type of QSR VoC feedback is also called unsolicited feedback. This is when a person giving the feedback is not saying it to be heard. You will find the majority of this type of feedback on online or digital platforms, blog mentions, or even third-party website reviews. However, this is the most serious feedback of the lot. They are more likely to truly help you improve your products and services as a restaurant brand.

   QSR VoC checklist:

   A voice of customer data analytics process is to be used while you create your VoC checklist because it ensures customer lifecycle data that is accurate enough for you to take actions from. Let’s take a look at what you should definitely consider:

   • A strong objective for the VoC program to base your survey on
   • Identifying what channels to collect VoC data from
   • Choosing the right tools to get started
   • Multi-channel feedback inclusion for the best results like your app, SMSs, live chats and more.

   In the food serving industry, you must be on top of your game to be a leader. This can be attained if you invest in the right Voice of the Customer tool, along with apt CMOs, CCOs, and industry leaders in the customer experience industry who can truly help you work on a customer-centric mapping of your brand. Working with customer experience companies like SonatGBW which has incredible clientele and years of experience in the industry you are bound to reach your goal of customer loyalty and sticking to customer demands in a streamlined way!