While VOC is considered as a key starting point for business excellence, can overemphasis on VOC be detrimental to business? Explain with examples. Note for website visitors - Two questions are asked every week on this platform. One on Tuesday and the other on Friday. All questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ Please visit the forum home page at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/ to respond to the latest question open till the next Tuesday/ Friday evening 5 PM as per Indian Standard Time. The best answer is always shown at the top among responses and the author finds honorable mention in our Business Excellence dictionary at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ along with the related term.

Voice of Customer is an important factor while we work on understanding and deploying the customer requirements to design and process requirements. VOC is an essential input in preparing the HOQ (House of Quality) as part of the QFD (Quality Function Deployment) exercise. To illustrate certain situations where overemphasis on VOC may not be practical or desirable, the following examples are discussed: 1. Varying or even contradicting customer preferences: Consider an case of designing the features for a consumer durable product... eg Washing Machine. One of the varying preference could be the color combinations on the machine. Another varying preference could be on the capacity requirements. While the range of preferences may be addressed to certain extent in the design and product mix, it has to be limited to a certain meaningful scope that will ensure return of investment. 2. Feasibility, cost and technological competency: There would be times when the expectation of the VOC may not be reachable considering the gap in technological and process competency that may prove too much to bridge within a given span of time and investment power. For eg. If a normal passenger car manufacturer gets a requirement for a racing car, it practically may not be a requirement that they may want to attempt. 3. Statutory and safety standards: Irrespective of the VOC, certain statutory and safety related requirements, regulations. Upon overall interest for compliance to regulatory requirements, companies may have to override customer expectations. In such cases the company should have the ability to explain and educate the customer for such decisions. Eg. Contain engine performance in an automobile to meet the pollution norms; exercise adequate pre-conditions for withdrawing money from bank account, which might result in exceeding the expected waiting time. 4. Innovative Products: Innovative products could be a game changer for consumers where the design has to be conceived differently from the prevailing VOC. For eg. How the concept of Smart Phones emerged based on the innovation by Apple. Here, there is always a risk due to straying away from the existing VOCs, but if it succeeds, the payoffs could be tremendous. 5. Customers rely on supplier expertise: For certain products, the customers might rely on a popular brand that has been in existence and proven for long. Many a time the customer may not be knowledgeable in all features and would rely on the branded product, which would offer features beyond the expectations of a normal customer. This is a case where the company would like to provide features that were not even known by the customer. This would apply to various consumer durable products, electronic appliances, cars etc. and could result in customer delight.

VOC

Voice of Business (VOB) - is a tool that captures the stated and unstated needs of the shareholders/business owners. Business scorecard is a very commonly used tool to capture VOB. E.g. profits, viability of business, cost reduction, dividend pay-outs, return on equity etc.

Voice of Customer (VOC) - is a research tool that captures the stated and unstated needs/requirements of the customer. Interviews, focussed group discussions, surveys, observation, warranty data, complaints are some of the ways in which VOC can be captured.

An application oriented question on the topic along with responses can be seen below. The best answer was provided by Venugopal R on 10th October 2017.

VOC, Voice of customer

Followers

October 12, 20178 yr

We have the winning answer for this question. Thank you all for taking out the time to contribute to the World's Biggest Dictionary, during the festive season. The best answer is given by Venugopal R of Club 46. This answer clearly explains, with the help of examples, where over emphasis on VOC could cause more harm to the business than benefits.

There were other answers that were close, but examples and articulation in your own words is always going to get some brownie points.

Cheers to excellence!