Peer Intelligence | Fall 2023
Voice of the Customer (VoC)
By James West
5, 7 or 10? No, I am not asking you to rate me; I am talking about the scale your plan uses in your survey program. There are thousands of opinions about which scale to use, but ultimately, that decision is yours. No matter which scale you use, the emphasis should be on designing your survey questions to provide you with the data you are trying to capture to improve service for your members.
We are regularly asked about the preferred scale for our Voice of the Customer (VoC) subscription. The answer is that while our reports utilize a 5-point scale, we can accommodate those with 7 or 10 point scales. Your current scale should not be an impediment to participating. Our conversion approach is based on talking to market experts outside the pension industry and employs a top box/bottom box framework.
As VoC grows and we have more data to work with, our plan is to evolve this approach. An increased depth of data will allow us to provide additional comparisons to same-scale peers, including a more scientific approach to mapping scale conversions.
Our goal is to provide you with comparable insights into your VoC results rather than focusing on mapping during the early phases.
Fall is the beginning of two exciting inaugural events for VoC. We will launch our first VoC Forum for our UK clients in early November. Our UK clients have been an important part of our beta testing cycle, and I am excited. A key benefit of participating in VoC is the opportunity to meet and share ideas with like-minded peers. Sometimes, it really takes a village for the best outcome.
The second event will be the first meeting of our North American Advisory Board. The Advisory Board will help shape the future of VoC, ranging from what additional questions should be benchmarked, what research clients are most interested in, to best practices in the industry.
Wishing everyone an enjoyable Fall.
Should you have any questions or want to learn more about VoC, please reach out to me at james@cembenchmarking.com.
Peer Intelligence | Fall 2023