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The Voice of Customer (VOC) is one important element during the Quality Function Deployment exercise. VOC includes stated and implied requirements of the customer. The QFD helps in ensuring that all the elements of the VOC are addressed by the process and also provides a quantitative expression as to how much of each characteristic is addressed by the associated process / process steps. The Critical to Quality (CTQ) characteristics are also identified and subjected to the extra attention and care required from the process. The Strategic Business Objectives form one of the key starting points for the Policy Deployment exercise as part of Business Process Management. Here the Voice of Business (VOB) forms a key input, being the primary need of a business and its stakeholders, including profitability, revenue, growth, market share etc. Some situations where we encounter conflict between VOC & VOB 1. Pricing of a Product / Service: This is one of the commonest factors where the VOC and VOB will undoubtedly have very strong negotiations. VOB will seek to maximize the margin of profits, but will have to maintain competitiveness. VOC seeks to get best price and this expectation will get calibrated by comparing with the prevalent competing offers. Here, one of the most important term that is used by VOB is that we should ensure that customer gets “Value for Money”. I would like to state the quote I picked up from one of my mentors “When we provide a product of service worth Rs.1, the customer should end up feeling that they obtained a service worth Rs.2”. However the same leadership also expects the VOB to be fulfilled. This is the challenge. 2. Quality requirements: For industrial products, Quality requirements are expressed quite clearly and in detail through specifications, drawings and standards. In the case of consumer goods and durables, Quality standards are set by the manufacturer based on various inputs from market and focused customer groups and past customer feedback. In the case of service industry, Quality requirements are expressed as part of service level agreements and are likely to be quite voluminous and subject to higher interpretation variations. Conflicts arise when interpretation variations and alterations crop up in quality expectations, especially after a contract is signed off. The VOB is likely to raise concerns relating to the feasibility of agreed pricing and delivery times, if there are differences in the Quality levels initially agreed. Close involvement of all concerned stakeholders, transparent discussions are key to reach a consensus. 3. Scope creep: Scope creep refers to changes, continuous or uncontrolled expansion in a project's scope, at any point after the project begins. To a large extent businesses will accommodate changes that creep in after the initial agreement, honoring the customers’ needs and considering long term relationships. However, beyond a certain point of time, the VOB is likely to raise questions upon accepting such scope changes without reviewing or revising other contractual agreements. Again, the fairness of the expectations would also have to be seen, considering the competitive offerings available to the customer to strike the right balance between VOC and VOB. 4. Overbooking: This situation is commonly seen in flight bookings where the airlines tend to overbook in anticipation of certain amount of last minute cancellations. The VOB wants to maximize capacity utilization as much as possible. Sometimes, it results in some customers with valid reservations to go without seats. Although the airlines try to compensate by providing accommodation and other benefits, not every customer would be happy about such deprivation. The same analogy may be made for other businesses, where anxiety of not losing the order could trigger over commitments, but sometimes end up with under delivery. The ‘over ambitiousness’ of VOB rubs VOC. 5. Forecast vs Actual: There could be cases where we have an ongoing customer contract for which a monthly forecast would have been provided by the customer to their vendor. It could be an Auto manufacturer giving a monthly forecast to supplier or it could be a Health Insurance company providing forecast for claim volumes to be processed every month. The vendor invests and plans capacity, hires resources and sets up equipment as per the forecasts. Where the demand exceeds the forecast for a particular month, it puts the vendor under pressure and where the demand falls short of the forecast, the vendor suffers capacity utilization. Such conflicts are seen between the VOC and VOB. If the vendor, as part of their business do their independent homework on the market / customer trends, apart from the forecast provided by the customer, they would be able to apply realistic flexibility on their plans and investments. 6. Change requests: Change requests from customer for a running business could require investments from the supplier organization. Carrying out changes in a running business may not be very easy, without disrupting the flow. Change management system has to ensure that the effectiveness of the change is ensured, at the same time no adverse impact is resulted. The VOB may sometimes find it tough to accept the demand of the VOC, but considering the priority for an existing customer, will have to take risks and yield. Elaboration of the change management related terms and conditions in the Service Level Agreements could help bridge such expectation gaps between VOC and VOB. 7. Long term business interest: Several situations would require the VOB to adjust itself consciously considering the long term business relationship with a customer. For instance, if we are provided multiple business accounts by one customer with varying profit margins, we might consciously undertake with discretion, to serve some business accounts that may not be profitable at all. Such decisions are taken in the larger interest of maintaining the overall set of accounts in the long term. The P&L heads for such accounts will feel the conflict between the VOC and VOB. Appropriate prior communication and involvement of such P&L heads in such strategic discussions would help ease out these situations. 8. Moments of truth: Moments of Truth (MOT) is a phrase that refers to instances where the customer is provided an opportunity to form / change his/her impression about the company (or service provider). These could be very customized instances to deal with unique situations with customer; and sometimes one may have to deviate from the usual VOB. I can recall one instance when I had to be bold enough to host a customer, very upset due to product performance, to my organization and give him an audience by key functions in the organization and get the product fixed right in his presence. This is not an activity that is normally permitted and obviously cannot form a precedence; neither was I authorized to do so. However, it worked magic with the customer whose impression was transformed and it also helped to gain a sizable order. Hence, MOT is something every organization needs to sensitize its employees, and should have a way of getting it exercised with employee discretion, when a situation demands, although it may temporarily appear as a conflict between VOC and VOB. 9. Competitive rivalry, predatory pricing: These wars are common especially with consumer products and services. We do see competing companies, usually large organizations with multiple business lines, offering what appear to be unreasonably low prices for selected products / services, to rapidly gain market share. This puts huge pressure on the VOB for the smaller organizations that are more dependent on that particular line of business. It is very important not to falter on addressing the VOC under such circumstances. One has to be very patient, but focused on providing the best value to the customer, who finally takes the call. To conclude, both VOC and VOB and very important for the successful sustenance of a business. While the intention of VOB is to satisfy the needs of VOC, sustenance is possible only with business growth. So long as the ' VOC vs VOB' conflicts help in constructive decisions and strategies, it will be Win-Win in the long run.