Conducting a Voice of Customer (VoC) research as a manufacturing company is a great initiative. The results from a VoC survey help organizations to increase customer satisfaction and retention.
Just because customers are not vocal with their complaints does not mean they don’t have any.
For context, only 1 out of 26 customers are likely to share their complaints with businesses (CXM). What happens with the other 25? They simply take their business to a competitor without fair warning.
As a result, Voice of Customer surveys has become crucial for manufacturing organizations to let their customers know their feedback matters.
This type of market research makes customers more comfortable and willing to share their complaints rather than with customer service representatives directly.
In this blog post, our VoC market research company shares details of a recent study conducted with a manufacturing company including the objectives, approach, process, and reporting options.
Objectives of the Manufacturing VoC Survey
A manufacturing company hired Drive Research, to conduct a VoC survey on their behalf.
The Voice of Customer survey addressed several core objectives, including:
- Overall customer satisfaction.
- Likelihood to recommend (NPS) their products.
- Likelihood to purchase in the future.
- Top factors of importance when choosing a manufacturer.
- Areas of improvement.
- Overall product feedback.
Drive Research consulted with the manufacturer client on survey questions to include custom and recommended questions to address all goals.
The client plans to use the outcomes of the VoC market research study to assist with operations, marketing, and business strategies.
The team wanted to make data-driven decisions, rather than basing decisions on assumptions.
Recommended Reading: The What, How, and Why of Voice of Customer (VoC) Surveys
Approach to the Manufacturing VoC Survey
There are various approaches to collecting customer feedback. For instance, a manufacturing company can rely on online surveys, phone surveys, or mail surveys.
Each market research methodology has its own advantages and disadvantages - however, for most clients, online VoC surveys are the popular choice.
This type of survey can be sent by email if given access to a list of customer email addresses.
Market research companies specializing in manufacturing, such as Drive Research, understand the importance of collecting fast yet quality data. Online surveys provide organizations with the best of both worlds.
Plus, online surveys are one of the most cost-effective market research methodologies. Compared to phone surveys and mail surveys, an online Voice of Customer survey was the clear winner.
Process of Conducting the Manufacturing VoC Survey
The initial stages of a VoC survey include a signed proposal, a kickoff meeting, as well as designing and programming the questionnaire.
Once the survey is finalized, our team sends an initial email invitation to the list of customers.
Those who did not complete the survey after the initial invitation received several reminders. This follow-up helps boost response rates as much as possible.
It’s important to both our research team and the manufacturer client to collect the highest possible survey responses.
More feedback = increased reliability.
It also allows for more flexibility in analysis to run cross-tabs and comparisons such as the type of customer, services used, region, etc.
Once fieldwork began, Drive Research provided a passcode-protected survey link, which tabulated customer data in real-time.
The online dashboard allowed the manufacturing company to check in on survey results 24/7 throughout the fieldwork. The results can be downloaded into Excel, PDF, PowerPoint, or Word.
To learn more about the in-depth process, read our Ultimate Guide to Conducting Customer Satisfaction Surveys.
Results of the Manufacturing VoC Survey
Once fieldwork concluded, the client was sent an online market research report.
These online reports can be exported as Excel, PDF, PowerPoint, or Word. In addition to the online report, the client also received the raw data file containing all survey responses.
The results from the VoC survey remain confidential with the manufacturing client.
Additional reporting options included:
Topline Summary
It is delivered in a Word document and includes background and methodology and bullet-point style key findings.
These documents typically range between 2 to 4 pages. The document helps the reader understand the study's basic findings without navigating through the portals of charts or the raw data file.
Comprehensive PowerPoint Report
The report includes background and methodology, a themed executive summary, recommendations, a scorecard to measure progress wave-over-wave on KPIs, a persona, and an infographic.
Excel Banner File
This includes the results with all questions and all crosstabulations with significance testing. It creates an in-depth pivot table-like view of the results.
Debrief with Q&A
Drive Research is available to debrief with the client after the market research through a 60-minute scheduled conference call or video chat.
After the debrief, the report with any final edits and supporting files will be emailed to the client.
Contact Our VoC Market Research Company
Drive Research is a national market research company specializing in Voice of Customer surveys. Our team partners with manufacturing companies from across the country to execute streamlined research studies.
Interested in learning more about our market research services? Reach out through any of the four ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Taylor
As a Senior Research Analyst, Emily is approaching a decade of experience in the market research industry and loves to challenge the status quo. She is a certified VoC professional with a passion for storytelling.
Learn more about Emily, here.
