Every business team should listen to the ‘voice of the customer’

Kevin Lau has been listening to software customers for decades and leveraging those insights to build strong customer and employee experiences at Adobe, F5, and elsewhere.

As vice president of customer engagement at Freshworks, Lau is on a mission to bring the voice of the customer into every aspect of the business. We sat down with him recently to discuss how organizations can convert customer insights to drive business decisions, create exceptional customer experience, and build a customer-centric culture. 

Here are some highlights of the conversation.

What is “voice of the customer” and why is it critical for delivering great CX?

Voice of the customer (VoC) is about using customer insights to bring us closer to customers and resolve their friction points. The biggest gap for many organizations is not having the right intelligence to make informed decisions—we often build products or develop strategies from an inside perspective rather than starting with customer-centricity. The voice of the customer creates an ecosystem where you're gathering insights from multiple touchpoints to inform decision-making across the organization.

How is AI transforming VoC programs?

AI makes insights much more real-time and predictive. Historically, voice-of-the-customer initiatives required significant time investment through surveys or other engagement methods. Today, feedback is happening everywhere, and AI helps aggregate it in meaningful ways to connect the dots. It enables organizations to create predictive models that anticipate customer needs before they're even expressed, allowing us to deliver experiences that truly resonate.

Read also: Employees want more AI—and employers are listening 

Where do customer insights show up in a customer-centric organization?

When support resolves a customer issue, that's a real-time window into what customers are experiencing. These interactions directly relate to customer happiness and their likelihood to renew versus churn.

These insights should fuel decisions throughout the company: For example, finance teams deciding on pricing structures, or marketing teams choosing which markets to target—they all need to understand customer perceptions. Every decision should be grounded in customer understanding.

Where have you seen this approach have a big impact?

At F5, we were transitioning from a legacy hardware company to a SaaS security organization. After 25 years of selling hardware solutions, this required a huge mindset shift for both employees and customers. We used customer feedback to drive the transformation and align teams around common goals.

How have customer expectations changed recently?

The pandemic accelerated digital transformation dramatically. Companies had to move faster due to technological pressures and changing customer behavior. Now AI has further transformed expectations—consumers are less patient and want immediate resolution.

When I was at Adobe, we focused on creating impactful experiences by starting with the product but extending to the entire customer journey. The key was building predictive models to stay ahead of customer needs rather than merely reacting.

How should companies leverage the connections between employee experience and customer experience?

Happy employees lead to happy customers. The more employees understand customer needs, the better they can serve them. But many departments have no proximity to customers whatsoever, yet they're making decisions that impact the customer experience.

When you put customer insights at the centerpiece of your organization, everyone gains a better understanding of pain points and potential solutions and how their role impacts customers—whether directly or indirectly. This helps them make better decisions aligned with what customers truly need—and ultimately, it creates a better company culture and a stronger connection to your mission.