The Complete Online Reputation Playbook

Client expectations are evolving rapidly, and professional service firms must adapt to stay competitive. Join ClearlyRated Founder and CX Strategist, Eric Gregg, as he unveils the latest  CX trends shaping the future of client experience. Discover how to leverage these insights to drive growth, boost client retention, and position your firm for long-term success.

Key Takeaways:

• The top client experience trends impacting professional service firms
• How to measure and improve client satisfaction
• Strategies for building strong client relationships
• The role of technology in enhancing client experiences
• Actionable steps to implement a world-class client experience program

Presenter

Eric Gregg, Co-Founder & CX Strategist

With two decades of research experience in B2B professional services, Eric Gregg and the team at ClearlyRated have analyzed more than 7.2 million surveys with the goal of determining what drives success for professional services firms.

Eric has served as an adjunct faculty member in Portland State University’s marketing program, and has published numerous articles, business cases, and technical notes in the field of marketing, client loyalty and employee satisfaction. His research and consulting have been featured in articles and as a noted industry speaker.

Companies that use customer feedback are 2.5 times more likely to outperform their competitors in revenue growth. Yet, 75% of organizations struggle to turn customer insights into actionable business decisions. 

Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs are designed to help you collect feedback from multiple channels. They have become important to industry leaders like Amazon and Apple as they boost business performance. 

In this article, we will help you design and improve a VoC program that achieves meaningful results for your business.

What Is the Voice of the Customer?

Voice of the Customer (VoC) is a systematic process of capturing, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback and behavioral data to drive business decisions.

Customers share their thoughts through different channels, such as:

• Community forums
• Support interactions
• Feedback forms
• Social media posts
• Customer surveys

However, it’s important to have support from all departments to create an effective VoC strategy. Every team plays a key role in enhancing the customer experience. It’s important for everyone to agree on how to gather feedback, share insights, and apply those findings to improve their part of the customer journey.

The Benefits of a Voice of the Customer Program

Many businesses without a VoC program depend heavily on sales data alone. Sales data shows what products perform well but misses why customers make these choices. This gap limits understanding and ignores key details about customer satisfaction and preferences.

VoC insights offer a complete picture and help businesses understand customer needs more deeply. It captures direct feedback for companies to make targeted improvements. 

Here are some major benefits of a strong VoC program:

Enhance Customer Loyalty

Retaining loyal customers is often easier than winning new ones. A Bain & Company study found that a 5% increase in retention rates can raise profits by 25% to 95%.

When you run a VoC program, customers can share concerns openly. This direct feedback lets your business respond quickly, improving customer satisfaction. As a result, you can reduce customer churn and increase loyalty.

Research from Oracle highlights this impact on customer experience with these interesting statistics:

• 46% of consumers felt positive when a company responded to a negative comment
• 89% of consumers turned to a competitor after a poor experience
• 24% of consumers who faced bad service shared their experiences on social media 

A great example of loyalty through VoC is Sephora’s "Beauty Insider" program. Members use points to try sample products and special experiences, like makeovers. This approach works well in beauty, where creativity and testing products are key.

Sephora also taps into beauty communities, like Reddit’s "r/makeupaddiction," which has over 6.3 million members. It created a "Beauty Insider Community" where members get advice and ideas from each other.

Sephora keeps its program fresh by updating rewards based on feedback, meeting changing customer needs, and keeping loyalty high.

Beauty Insider’s hybrid model mixes points and loyalty tiers, such as "Insider," "VIB," and "Rouge." In 2024, Sephora added new levels in the UK: "MySephora Bronze," "MySephora Silver," and "MySephora Gold." This tiered approach keeps conversations going online, with many Reddit threads on using Sephora points.

Improve Brand Reputation

A strong VoC program can greatly improve your brand’s reputation. When you respond quickly and thoughtfully to customer feedback, you show that you value their opinions. This builds trust and shows commitment to customer satisfaction.

Research supports this. For instance, companies with active VoC programs saw a 55% increase in customer retention rate and a 23% decrease in yearly customer service expenses.

A good VoC program can also prevent crises. By resolving issues early, your business can stop small problems from growing into public issues. For example, Delta Airlines uses VoC to catch negative feedback early. By acting quickly, they avoid bigger issues and build positive customer relationships.

Social proof is another key benefit. Positive reviews and testimonials strengthen brand reputation and draw new customers. According to Nielsen, 92% of customers trust recommendations from others. If you create a VoC program, it will encourage satisfied customers to share their positive experiences.

Reduce Customer Complaints and Faster Resolutions

Gathering customer feedback in a structured manner enables businesses to identify issues before they escalate. And early detection means you can tackle problems proactively, which is essential for keeping customers happy. 

A VoC program will also help you assess the severity of different issues. By prioritizing based on urgency and impact, you can resolve high-priority concerns quickly, leading to faster resolutions.

Encourage Product Innovation

VoC insights help companies keep up with changing trends and customer preferences. Understanding what customers want encourages innovation in products and services.

For example, Microsoft used VoC data to develop Office 365 features based on user requests. This allowed them to launch new features faster. Fast response to VoC insights also builds a competitive advantage, showing that you adapt quickly to customer needs. VoC data can reduce R&D costs by focusing only on needed features. 

When you align products with customer expectations, you create a better user experience. This strengthens customer loyalty, boosts sales, and helps you stay competitive in a fast-changing market.

Increase in Revenue

Retaining customers and growing your base directly raises revenue. A strong VoC program lets you track what customers want and are willing to pay for.

VoC insights also reveal cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Amazon uses VoC feedback to recommend related items, increasing sales by 35% through targeted product suggestions. Aligning your offers with customer desires leads to more purchases, helping your revenue grow.

3 Questions to Consider Before Building a Voice of the Customer Program

While building an effective VoC program, you must ask the right questions to make a big difference. 

These three questions can help guide companies in their efforts to enhance the customer experience, boost retention, and increase revenue.

Question #1: What Is the Goal of the Voice of the Customer Program?

Having a well-defined purpose is crucial for any voice of the customer program. The strategies you choose should align with your business goals. Before diving into the program, it's helpful for companies to explore potential objectives and identify which will be the most beneficial for their unique requirement.

Objectives for a VoC program typically fall into two categories: benchmarking and continuous improvement.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking focuses on comparing performance across different metrics. Some survey providers claim to serve both benchmarking and continuous improvement, but a closer look at their survey structures reveals the truth. 

Benchmarking surveys often contain numerous rating questions and are heavily metrics-oriented. For instance, one vendor uses the first 13 questions solely for benchmarking, sometimes including just one open-ended question in a 30- or 40-question set.

To make benchmarking effective, it’s important to maintain consistency in the survey experience. Every respondent should receive the same set of questions, regardless of their website journey. Otherwise, the survey can feel lengthy and irrelevant. When questions are too long or not directly related, the quality of responses tends to drop. 

Ultimately, the value of benchmarking surveys lies in comparative performance. 

However, understanding why scores rank as they do often requires a further, more granular voice of the customer research.

Continuous Improvement

On the other hand, continuous improvement goals can be tailored to specific customer interactions. These surveys may include rating questions along with open-ended ones that encourage respondents to explain their ratings. This approach provides deeper insights into what drives customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Companies should select their objective based on the type of information they wish to gather. Some common goals include:

• Customer Research
• Customer Retention
• Acquiring New Customers
• Improving Brand Image
• Cost Reduction
• Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Question #2: What Metrics Should Be Measured Throughout the VoC Program?

After defining the goal of the VoC program, the next step is to determine which metrics will effectively measure progress. Some commonly used metrics include the Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).

When selecting these metrics, consider how they fit into the broader business picture. You should also combine quantitative data with qualitative insights from customer feedback for a well-rounded understanding. 

Regularly reviewing and adjusting your metrics ensures you stay responsive to both evolving customer needs and shifting business objectives.

Question #3: How Should the Success of the VoC Program Be Measured?

Last but not least, your VoC program needs to inspire action. 

Evaluate success by evaluating what has changed since the program's implementation. Success measurement relies on setting clear goals and selecting specific metrics that align with those objectives. Companies should keep track of whether their metrics improve over time. 

The adjustments made to enhance these metrics should guide the company toward its primary goals.

Building a Voice of the Customer Program: Best Practices

Building a VoC program gives you direct access to your customers’ needs. Their feedback provides valuable insights and warnings that can influence your business's success. 

These five essentials can set your VoC program on continuous improvement.

Identify Customer Touchpoints

Understanding how your customers experience your brand means recognizing the various touchpoints they encounter along the way. Customers may first notice your brand through an online search or an ad. They might browse your blog, explore customer reviews, or visit your website. Some may visit a physical store and, later on, connect with your customer service team.

Mapping out these touchpoints within a customer journey map helps you see the full scope of their experience. By combining insights from all touchpoints, you can gain a complete view of customer experiences, which helps inform your decision-making and identify where improvements will make the most difference.

Collect and Connect Feedback Across Data Channels

Relying on just one or two channels to gather feedback often doesn’t cover the complete picture of customer needs, behaviors, and preferences. Without a comprehensive approach, VoC programs miss valuable insights and deliver a limited view of customer satisfaction. 

To capture the whole story, you need feedback from every channel your customers interact with.

Client feedback and reputation management platforms like ClearlyRated make it easier to capture insights across multiple channels. By deploying customized surveys, ClearlyRated gathers responses that reveal how likely customers are to recommend your services. 

It then categorizes them into promoters, passives, and detractors, giving you a clear snapshot of overall customer sentiment and areas where improvements can be made. With this data, you’re not just collecting feedback; you’re building a foundation for a seamless customer experience across channels.

Analyze Customer Data

Collecting data is only half the story—you need to understand it. To make sense of customer insights, standardizing your approach to data analysis is essential. 

Tools like natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis can help decode customer sentiments, emotions, and preferences.

By translating raw data into actionable insights, you gain a clearer view of what customers value or find frustrating. These insights go beyond surface-level satisfaction, helping your team understand the deeper needs, wants, and feelings that drive customer choices. With this data, your organization can more accurately measure and improve the customer experience.

Collaborate with Teams Across the Entire Organization

Building an effective VoC program requires teamwork across departments. Different teams must join forces to gather, analyze, and act on the insights. By using collaborative action-planning tools, departments can align on customer-focused strategies. 

ClearlyRated, for example, allows you to tag project owners, set deadlines, and provide step-by-step guides to ensure everyone knows how to make customers happy.

Take Action and Deliver Insights to the Right People

It’s also essential to connect the right people with the right insights. Configurable dashboards make it easy to share relevant data across roles, from frontline staff to leadership. 

With ClearlyRated’s automatic alerts based on location, feedback type, or behavior, teams can quickly address concerns and track feedback over time. This data-driven collaboration helps foster customer loyalty, as clients see that their feedback is valued and acted upon, creating a culture of continuous improvement.

You can automatically involve the right stakeholders based on feedback from the leadership team on the frontline.

Monitor and Act on Customer Experience Trends

Regular monitoring helps companies track their progress over time. 

Often, companies get confused while choosing the right metrics. Instead, focus on one key metric. Create a system that encourages smooth feedback flow. 

As employees respond to feedback, you will see that metric improve over time.

How to Collect VoC Data

When it comes to gathering VoC data, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Different methods provide unique benefits, so many companies combine several techniques to provide a fuller picture of customer perspectives. 

Let’s look at some key methods and how each adds value to understanding customer experiences.

Customer Interviews

Direct interviews are one of the most simple ways to gather customer insights. Whether conducted face-to-face, by phone, or via email, interviews allow for in-depth exploration of customer opinions. 

This method remains popular because it allows companies to capture the unique perspectives and specific feedback customers provide in their interactions with a brand.

Surveys

Surveys are essential for gathering Voice of Customer (VoC) data, offering an efficient way to collect targeted feedback at specific points in the customer journey. Surveys can be delivered in many ways—by email, SMS, or directly on a website. The structure and types of questions can vary widely, from multiple-choice to open-ended formats, allowing companies to tailor questions to specific insights they need. 

ClearlyRated’s NPS surveys are a highly effective way to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction by categorizing responses into promoters, passives, and detractors. Promoters are highly satisfied customers who are likely to recommend the brand. At the same time, passives are satisfied but not enthusiastic, and detractors are unhappy customers who might discourage others from engaging with the brand. 

This system provides a quick, intuitive view of how customers feel about the brand, helping companies identify strengths and areas that need improvement.

The platform’s survey approach works because it focuses on creating tailored survey experiences that resonate with clients. By customizing survey questions, companies can dive deeper into specific areas, gathering insights not only on general satisfaction but also on the finer aspects of their services. This feedback allows businesses to respond more effectively to customer needs. 

Additionally, ClearlyRated’s dashboard calculates your Net Promoter® Score and gives insights into your customer’s perceptions of optimism, community, fairness, recognition, advancement, feedback, pride, belonging, meritocracy, and diversity.

Live Chat

Live chat on a website has become a go-to tool for real-time feedback. This feature offers a window into the customer experience as it’s happening. Live chats can also provide an opportunity to schedule follow-up surveys, so companies can track satisfaction levels over time. 

Responding instantly to customer concerns helps prevent negative experiences, reducing the chance of dissatisfaction before they leave the site.

Online Reviews and Social Media

For a modern approach to gathering VoC data, online reviews and social media interactions are invaluable. This approach allows for two-way communication, helping businesses understand customer needs and anticipate trends.

Maintaining a positive brand reputation is crucial for customer retention. Responding to online reviews shows that a company values customer opinions. A solid review management strategy helps businesses identify customer frustrations and take steps to address them.

Website Behavior 

Understanding customer behavior on a website can reveal a lot about their experience. Tools like heat maps track where users click, scroll, and linger, helping businesses optimize the site’s layout and functionality. These insights allow companies to test changes and adjustments to enhance user experience. 

Plus, tracking on-site behavior is a powerful way to make the website more user-friendly, directly responding to customer interaction patterns.

Focus Groups

Focus groups bring together a small, diverse group of people to discuss their thoughts on a product, service, or topic. 

Unlike surveys or interviews, focus groups provide qualitative data that offers depth and detail. Participants can share their thoughts openly, providing context that often isn’t captured in quantitative data. 

By using focus groups, businesses can access a more nuanced understanding of customer perceptions and preferences, which can be especially useful for fine-tuning products or marketing strategies.

How Companies are Changing the Business Landscape With VoC

Customer-perceived quality and above-average service drive business success. When customers share their feedback, they expect action and updates on progress.

To build customer loyalty, you need a clear view of customers, markets, and employees.

As one of the largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the US, Woodruff Sawyer protects the people and assets of more than 4,000 companies. Customer experience was a key priority for them. 

In 2014, they invested in a data-driven approach to enhance their services. Their commitment to client experience and unique service needs set them apart. They sought measurable data about client experiences and wanted direct feedback.

Although Woodruff Sawyer’s client ratings were excellent from the start, they found some detractors.

They needed a Net Promoter Score (NPS) solution to harness actionable data. This led them to ClearlyRated. The ClearlyRated program uses NPS methodology, providing more than just survey data.

Melinda Miu, Woodruff Sawyer’s Assistant Vice President of Marketing, said: 

“From a communications perspective, NPS has provided us with a metric to credibly demonstrate the level of service we provide. Every single NPS survey that we’ve launched since 2014 has scored us in the world-class range for service. Our most recent NPS based on our 2021 survey was 86.1%—far exceeding the insurance industry average of 34%. These metrics make it possible for us to tell our story in a way that provides proof of our claims of excellence.” 

Woodruff Sawyer is an excellent example of a brand that incorporates the voice of the customer into their marketing and communications to help tell their story of service excellence. 

Their story highlights the transformative power of VoC in shaping business strategies and fostering lasting customer relationships.

Use ClearlyRated to Fuel Your VoC Program

Today, businesses don’t need to rely on feedback from just a few customers. They can be a part of every customer interaction, gaining insights across all stages of the customer journey. This opens up an entirely new level of understanding, giving companies the power to make smarter decisions that enhance customer experiences.

ClearlyRated brings a unique mix of award-winning technology and specialized services to the table, making Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs more effective, manageable, and scalable. With ClearlyRated, interpreting VoC data becomes very easy, helping businesses identify where their focus should be to make a lasting impact on both customers and overall success.

Moreover, ClearlyRated's customizable survey designs, automated workflows for different NPS segments, and AI-driven sentiment analysis empower you to transform detractors into promoters, creating a more positive experience all around. Book a free demo with ClearlyRatedto get started!

You’ve probably seen competitors touting various industry awards and wondered whether it’s worth pursuing one of your own. While some awards are just pay-for-play, others you truly have to earn—and those mean the most. ClearyRated’s ‘Best of’ award falls into that second category. 

But who’s eligible, how do you earn the award, and what are the perks of being a winner? We’re here to answer these burning questions.

What are the ClearlyRated ‘Best of’ awards?

Each year for the past 15 years, ClearlyRated has recognized B2B service firms in North America whose service has been recognized as excellent by their clients and/or employees.

The ‘Best of’ Awards for Client and Employee Satisfaction are awarded in the following industries: Accounting, HR services, Insurance, IT services, Legal, RPO, and Staffing & Recruiting. Firms can earn additional designations - the Best of Diamond Awards - for consistent excellence over 5, 10, and, now, 15 years.

‘Best of' award process and eligibility

Eligibility for this annual award is based on each firm’s Net Promoter® Score (NPS®), which is determined by verified ratings provided by their clients and employees. ClearlyRated validates every firm's score, measures them against industry benchmarks, and announces the winners in every industry during our Winner Announcement Day each February - more on that below!

Only companies that receive at least a 20% survey response rate with at least 15 responses, or that receive at least 250 total responses, are eligible to earn a ClearlyRated ‘Best of’ award. For this year's competition, they must also earn an NPS score of at least 50%.

Less than 2% B2B service firms in any industry in North American earn the award, making them a credible and sought-after differentiator of service quality.

Register for the "Best of" Award Today

How ClearlyRated celebrates the ‘Best of’ winners

The first Tuesday in February is one of the biggest days of the year for us here at ClearlyRated - Winner Announcement Day! What do we do to help winner celebrate? Let's try to count the ways.

We: publish press releases announcing the 'Best of' winners for every industry; post on all of our social media channels about the winners in each industry; re-post and boost our clients' winner announcement social posts; send congratulations emails to each winning firm; get our association partners in each industry in on the public celebrations with visibility to their audiences; shoot fireworks from the roof of our Portland, OR headquarters... okay that last one was a joke, but you get the idea. We love celebrating our winners and the excitement is palpable throughout ClearlyRated and beyond.

All the ways we help our winners celebrate

But that's how we celebrate. The winners themselves get so much more:

• Winning firms names and award badges prominently displayed on the ClearlyRated B2B business directory
• Customized press release templates with actual NPS data from each winning firm alongside industry benchmarks
• 'Best of' winner badges, with a Best Practices guide to maximizing their impact brand reputation and marketing and sales efforts
• A social media toolkit that includes 'Best of' Winner social sharing images, hashtags, and tips
• Access to the winners-only award merchandise shop
• Resources for leveraging the deluge of testimonials and shout outs that winning firms receive from adoring clients in their surveys
• Exclusive 'Best of' winner data and benchmarking
• A winners-only webinar about how to maximize the value of your best of win
• The full support of our world-class Customer Success team

Pretty amazing, right? Don't just take our word for it...

What ClearlyRated clients say

Here’s what ClearlyRated clients have said about their experience with the 'Best of' program—including what it has done for their service and reputation:

‘Best of' award timing

The annual 'Best of' awards calendar is cyclical, starting with the Winner Announcement Day in February. Firms must survey by December to compete to earn a 'Best of' award in time for the Winner Announcements in February.

Firms who don't survey in time for Winner Announcements can still earn the award for that year if they survey by July, but they'll miss the Winner Announcement celebrations. The competition to earn the following year's award begins in August. Below is the awards cycle for the 2025 award season.

Register for the 'Best of' Awards today!

Ready to get started and prove that your firm is one of the best? Simply fill out the form below and we'll be in touch!

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Business wisdom 101: Working to keep your customers is less costly than constantly acquiring new ones. Preventing customer churn is essential to maintain stability as you pursue growth. Plus, adding customers isn’t the only way to grow. You can also expand current customers’ spend. So, without further adieu, we’ll help you consider how to avoid the cost of client churn by answering these questions about predicting which clients are likely heading toward off ramps–and ways to redirect them.

Top Reasons B2B Clients Churn

At ClearlyRated, we live and breathe customer experience (CX), so we love to research what matters most to B2B customers. Over the years, we’ve pinpointed the most common reasons customers cite for replacing a B2B service provider. These include:

• Unmet expectations
• High cost for perceived service value
• Slow or unreliable communication
• Unhelpful staff 
• Lack of B2B CX management 

Take heart in the fact that most of these factors are service related. That means, they’re within your control. With an internal focus on delivering a positive CX through proactive communication and responsive customer care, you can better position your firm to retain its customers.

How To Identify At-Risk Clients

Understanding what leads to customer churn can help you prevent it, but you also need to detect which clients are likely considering and exit. Look for these five signs that your clients may be unhappy so you can intercede before their eyes wander toward your competitors.

1. They reference your contract terms (or worse, your competitors’ claims)

If your client feels they need to bring up your contract for any reason other than renewal, you’re in hot water. And if they bring up a competitor, it’s a sure sign that they’ve begun considering other options or at the very least want to put the pressure on your team to improve.

2. They’ve complained

This one is obvious, but worth noting because too often client complaints aren’t given the attention they deserve. Don’t get defensive. Instead, be grateful that the client has given you an opening to make things better. Fans of The Office will remember well when Jim and Pam committed to “having the fight” rather than rolling over and watching their marriage die. Take a cue from America’s sweethearts: Fight for your clients. Meet their complaints with an open mind and a willingness to make things right.

3. You receive little-to-no communication from them

While a silent customer can easily fall into the background amidst other squeakier wheels, pay attention! True, they may be just fine. Or they could feel frustrated, ignored, and ready to shop around.

4. They’re not spending what they used to

If regular spend is trending down, it’s a sure sign of a relationship that may be approaching its last breaths. Pay attention to customer spending reports and reach out to those with reduced their spend to see whether and how you can help to get things moving in the right direction.

5. They’ve given you a low Net Promoter® Score (NPS®)

If you measure your NPS, you know that getting a low score from one of your clients is a clear sign that they're unhappy. It also means they’re likely to churn. In fact, our analysis of 3,700 clients of staffing firms over three years revealed that Detractors (clients that rate your firm somewhere between 0 to 6 on the NPS scale) are 56% more likely to churn than Promoters, which are your most satisfied clients.

Effective Strategies to Prevent B2B Customer Churn

Creating and maintaining a positive CX should be at the heart of your client retention strategy. You can do this by:

• Maintaining internal communication and sharing client information and feedback across teams
• Encouraging regular communication with clients and asking for feedback
• Responding quickly to address any complaints
• Setting up a quarterly business review (QBR) schedule
• Offering value-add services 
• Acting as a consultative partner by sharing industry news and helpful content 

Even the best firms experience customer churn. Here’s how to predict and prevent it:

1. Identify dissatisfied customers then address their concerns to win them over

Here’s a positive (and true) perspective: Service failures present an opportunity to build a stronger relationship than before. This is a well-documented phenomenon called the service recovery paradox. Our data shows after clients have experienced a problem followed by a resolution within 24 hours, they give their service provider a higher NPS than before. Here’s how to achieve that:

• Communicate internally
• Follow up with your client within 24 hours and show empathy with their situation
• Invite them to a meeting
• Ask questions to get to the root of the issue
• Create a recovery plan with clear expectations, timelines, and check-ins
• Ask if there’s anything else
• Recover with the individual (not just the company)

2. Capitalize on your happiest customers

While you certainly want to convert unhappy customers with service recovery, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to neglect your loyal ones. Happy customers, or Promoters as we call them, typically spend more with your firm than unhappy ones. They’re also more likely to help you grow your business by referring you to potential clients and boosting your online reputation with positive reviews.

To maximize the benefits of these customer relationships, actively communicate with and appreciate your Promoters. Continue providing exemplary service, and when they give you referrals, go the extra mile in thanking them for their confidence in your firm. By treating your Promoters like the star clients they are, not only will you retain them more easily but you’ll also reap the benefits of their goodwill when asking for testimonials, reviews, and referrals.

3. Measure and improve your CX

Without a way to identify Detractors and Promoters, the above advice is moot. That’s why many B2B firms use NPS customer satisfaction surveys. The data they get helps them measure and track their CX, and the qualitative feedback customers share can help them improve their services and keep up with competitors. Just remember: If you evaluate your CX using client surveys, make sure to maintain an open line of communication. Create and follow a post-survey action plan so your clients know that you appreciated their feedback, that you’ve listened and that they didn’t waste their time.

Want expert guidance in creating, managing and responding to customer surveys? Learn more about ClearlyRated’s NPS survey platform.

Join ClearlyRated co-founders Eric Gregg and Nathan Goff in a must-attend, free webinar designed to help your firm master CX measurement. 

Armed with our latest research data, Eric and Nathan will guide you through the evolution of CX best practices. Learn how to overcome the hurdles that stop many firms from moving forward with CX measurement, and see how a dynamic system of ongoing, real-time visibility into customer health can help your firm grow faster. 

Dive into solutions for major challenges like:

• Securing leadership buy-in: Learn how to demonstrate the value of CX measurement to gain executive support.
• Overcoming decentralized client data: How to get started with client surveying, even if your contact information is scattered across multiple systems.
• Shifting employee perceptions: Educate your team on the positive outcomes of CX surveys, and foster a culture that values feedback.
• Enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty: Harness the power of real-time CX visibility and accountability to cater to your clients' evolving needs and exceed their expectations.
• Unlocking strategic customer health insights: Go beyond basic metrics to dive deep into comprehensive, actionable insights that inform your CX strategy and drive meaningful improvements.

Presenters

Eric Gregg, Co-Founder
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Nathan Goff, Co-Founder
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Did you know: Successful service recovery following a mistake can actually create customers who are more loyal than if they’d received flawless service from the start? (It’s true—learn more about the service recovery paradox).

When you think about it, it makes sense. Who doesn’t love a good redemption story? It’s what rom-com dreams are made of. The best ones feature a little stumble from their romantic leads, and their efforts to overcome and re-win their partner’s heart make their happily-ever-after feel even sweeter in the end.

Like our romantic heroes, when you identify and fix a service issue with humility, while making things even better than before, you build a stronger foundation of trust. You show that when things get tough, you’ll stick around and fight for your customers. Here’s how you can ride off into the sunset with any whose trust your team may have fumbled.

Common service recovery questions

We’ve helped dozens of firms measure and improve their customer experience (CX) over the years, and a common thread was that many weren’t prepared for service recovery. But we can’t express enough how important this is, especially when dealing with NPS survey detractors. So, before we cover how to protect your CX and your revenue with a strong service recovery process, we’ll answer a couple common questions about service recovery to make sure we’re on the same page.

Question: What does service recovery mean?

Answer: Service recovery is the way your team creates a happy customer after they’ve experienced some type of problem or disappointment. Even if that customer feels just plain neglected, your team should know what steps they need to take to overcome the issue and make their customer happy.

Question: How does service recovery fit into my overall CX strategy?

Answer: CX strategy covers everything from reactive customer service to proactive customer loyalty efforts. It should also include a plan for how you’ll recover from service issues. If a customer’s email slips through the cracks and goes unanswered, or a report they’re waiting for is late, what will your team do? If you don’t know the answer to that question, then you haven’t yet baked a service recovery plan into your CX strategy—and it’s high time you do.  Don’t worry, though, our next section gives you a good framework to get started. 

Service Recovery Rules to Live By

How can you make your service recovery such a delightful experience that it overshadows the initial issue and turns unhappy customers into brand advocates? Here’s what works for us—and what we’ve seen our clients successfully put into practice when rescuing their relationship with a dissatisfied customer.

Say sorry—even if it’s not your “fault.”

Ask your team to adopt the mindset that your customer is always right (while still having their back!). When they do, the rest of your recovery efforts will naturally align. Even if you feel certain that your team isn’t at fault, apologizing is a helpful first step. After all, an unhappy customer isn’t the result you strive for, so you should at least be sorry they’re not satisfied. Plus, a quick apology can cool brewing dissatisfaction by showing that you’re willing to make things right, which opens the door to a successful service recovery.  

Don’t be defensive.

Anything that pulls you away from being a compassionate advocate for your client will result in a haphazard service recovery. So, while it may feel intuitive to shelter yourself and your team from blame, you’ll recover more smoothly from a service failure when you’re not feeling and acting defensive. Rather than minimizing the issue or treating your client like they’re overreacting, take responsibility where you can.

Don’t make excuses.

Telling your client why something happened doesn’t change the fact that it happened. And if you start out by rehashing the issue, you’ll not only remind them of why they’re irritated in the first place but also delay the solution and further waste their time, likely annoying them even more. They don’t care why it happened, they just want it to be fixed. Prioritize your conversation around what you can do to help the client resolve the issue.

Show empathy and remember the individual.

After failing to provide excellent service, say something like, “I’m so sorry. That’s not how we typically do things, and you have every right to feel frustrated. I’ll look into how we can fix this.” With that one statement you’ve apologized, taken responsibility, expressed empathy, and assured them that you’ll fix the problem. You should also keep in mind that the service issue has had individual consequences. For instance, as a result of the service issue, your client contact may have looked unprepared in front of their boss. While it’s natural to focus on resolving the issue at the company level, make sure you also acknowledge and apologize at the personal level to preserve that relationship and create two-way empathy.

Identify the core issue, then fix it.

Before you can move forward, your team must first make things right by resolving the issue. Figure out what caused the issue to get to the root of the problem. Then take action. Fix it so something like this can’t happen again. Finally share the details about how you’re (already) solving the problem with your client so they know you’re on top of things moving forward.

Make sure your customer is happy. Go big or go home.

Your service recovery must be more memorable than your service failure. If you made a small mistake, you need to recover like you’ve made a huge mistake. If you missed a deadline by a day, for instance, prioritize your recovery as if you missed it by a week. This way, your client can’t miss how dedicated you are towards making things right.

Service recovery has a silver lining

While you’re certainly never excited about disappointing a client, you can turn a service failure into an opportunity to nurture your client relationship. Think of it as a rare chance to demonstrate the care and support clients receive when working with your firm. Show your commitment to long-term relationships by going to any length in order to fix a problem. Once you have, your clients will be so impressed by your recovery that they may not even remember the issue you needed to recover from.

Ready to strengthen the foundation of trust with your customers? Try ClearlyRated and discover the power of effective service recovery with a free client survey.

Providing a positive customer experience (CX) is a must if you want a successful business, and understanding your position on our CX maturity model can guide you there.

While only a small minority of customers will tell you when they have a service issue, most will complain about it to others. Fair enough—many of us get uncomfortable with confrontation. On the other hand, though, a great CX yields strong benefits. A Gartner report on customer service showed that 86% of customers will spend more money with a company after receiving value-enhanced services and almost all of them (97%) will reciprocate those good vibes by sharing news of their good experience with others. 

This shows that by providing a positive CX, you can improve your company’s bottom line. In fact, we have compelling proof that CX-driven accounting firms grow at a faster rate than their peers. 

But what does a good CX really look like, and how do you build one?

The Stages of CX Maturity

To answer the above question, we’ll start by covering the five stages of CX maturity.

Stage 0 – Your CX knowledge is anecdotal

Your organization doesn't have a standard, reliable way to measure and track the quality of your CX across the board. You don’t know your Net Promoter® Score (NPS®), and you lack related insights. 

Impact: At this stage, your CX is unknown. You cannot, therefore, improve it or capitalize on it.

Stage 1 – You have a CX report card

You measure CX metrics like NPS and can use industry benchmarks to compare your CX to your peers. While you can use point-in-time insights to identify at-risk accounts, you don’t have ongoing reporting to learn what’s going well or where you’re failing. 

Impact: When you can get meaningful reports, you improve your visibility into your CX and can begin to manage your online reputation.

Stage 2 – You’ve operationalized your CX reporting

If you use NPS surveys as a way to measure your CX, you get decent response rates and have a process for following up on customer feedback. Your team is proficient not only at measuring and reporting on CX, but also using those insights to take action. You use CX feedback reports to:

• Connect with at-risk accounts and save the relationship before they churn. 
• Identify areas for improvement and create action plans that raise your future NPS. 
• Gather positive feedback to support your marketing and sales efforts. 

Impact: You have the knowledge and power to improve your NPS, retention numbers, and online reputation.

Stage 3 – You have a CX-centric firm culture

By measuring, tracking, and reporting on CX metrics like NPS, you have clear proof of a positive CX. You also use validated customer feedback to guide business decisions, prioritizing your product and service roadmaps in ways that matter most to your customers. CX excellence is now integral to your brand story.  

Impact: Your NPS stays above industry standards, improving both customer and talent retention. You use CX insights to improve marketing materials, expand current customer accounts and boost new client acquisition (often thanks to referrals from happy customers), all of which help grow your firm’s revenue and gross margin.

Stage 4 – Your firm is CX driven

Your firm could serve as the best practice model for your industry. Not only do you regularly gather customer feedback to track CX metrics, but you also have processes for responding to customer feedback both at the micro level (i.e. individual customers) and the macro level (i.e. using trending insights to improve your overall CX). Your team consistently delivers remarkable experiences, and many of your customers act as brand ambassadors, singing your praise to potential customers.

Impact: In addition to the benefits from Stage 3, you have a team of productive professionals who take pride in providing great customer service.

5 Tips for advancing your CX maturity

We’ve spent two decades working with hundreds of firms across various industries to track and improve their CX, so we’ve seen what works best. Firms that consistently provide the best CX do the following:

1. They have an established process for collecting data from their clients (and often their own talent!). They then use these insights to predict and prevent churn while making firm-wide CX (and EX) improvements.
2. They automate their survey process with strategic integrations. Our clients have integrated Clearlyrated’s survey platform with Salesforce, Bullhorn, erecruit, Microsoft Dynamics, and Avionté. (Our Hubspot integration is coming soon!)
3. They involve their workforce. Top CX firms make sure their client-facing teams understand and actively support their CX measurement efforts. They route feedback to appropriate customer-facing team members while also celebrating CX shout-outs internally. Doing so boosts morale—and by rewarding CX excellence, they nurture a CX-focused culture.
4. They create processes for responding to and acting on survey insights. CX-driven firms don’t just survey their customers, they respond to the feedback. This shows customers that they care about their experience, building trust and fostering long-term relationships.
5. They’re proactive about using customer engagement to discover up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. ClearlyRated can help you customize your surveys to effectively capture new business opportunities from existing customers.

If you would like to deepen your understanding of your firm’s CX and identify ways to make meaningful improvements and grow your CX maturity, learn more about client satisfaction surveys.

B2B service providers have a lot of questions about online reviews: why they matter, how to get them, how to respond to them, and which review sites are the most important for firm growth. 

In this quick-hit 30-minute conversational webinar, ClearlyRated co-founders - CTO Nathan Goff and CEO Eric Gregg - will tackle your burning questions about online reviews. We'll dig into the fundamentals of online reviews, how and who to ask for reviews, how to handle negative reviews, and most importantly, how reviews help firms STAND OUT in search to attract new business.

We will answer the following questions:  

• Which online reviews matter most, and how do we get more?
• Which review sites should your company focus on? Google, Glassdoor, Facebook, Indeed?
• What’s better - a 5.0 or a 4.7-star rating?
• What you need to know about the FTC crackdown on the practice of review gating?
• How to respond and recover from negative online reviews?

Presenters

Eric Gregg, CEO & Founder

With two decades of research experience in B2B professional services, Eric Gregg and his team at ClearlyRated have analyzed more than 6.7 million surveys with the goal of determining what drives success for professional services firms. Eric has served as an adjunct faculty member in Portland State University’s marketing program, and has published numerous articles, business cases, and technical notes in the field of marketing, client loyalty and employee satisfaction. His research and consulting have been featured in articles and as a noted industry speaker.

Nathan Goff, CPO & Co-Founder

Nathan is a software industry veteran with years of experience leading software engineering teams in enterprise software development. He manages the product strategy and development at ClearlyRated. He has a passion for growing technology companies through continuous improvement and a focus on client and employee satisfaction.

Insights from a Decade of Client Response Rate Data

Introducing our newest research report: "Client Survey Response Rate Analysis: Key Takeaways and Discoveries," a deep dive into feedback data and response rate trends by our expert analytics team. We've harnessed ClearlyRated's massive dataset of client NPS® survey responses like never before.

What's in it for you?

Invaluable insights that unravel the secrets to boosting response rates and unlocking richer, more meaningful feedback. 

Our mission? To arm organizations with the tools to supercharge their survey strategies and, in turn, revolutionize their customer experience game.

Get your copy today!

A world-class experience awaits

Get the recognition you deserve and grow your business with ClearlyRated.

What I’m about to write shouldn’t surprise anyone. Unfortunately, based on how B2B firms compare with their B2C cousins, it might. Here goes: Customer experience (CX) management is not a “nice to have” for B2B firms — it’s mission critical.

According to PwC research, 86% of clients say the quality of a professional services firm’s CX is a top factor in determining whether to hire them. Our own survey of B2B buyers revealed that 98% of clients expect a response to their calls and emails within 24 hours, and two-thirds expect a call back within 4 hours.

What is CXM and what does it do for B2B firms?

CX management (CXM) isn’t just about reacting quickly to calls and emails. It also includes efforts to make things quick and easy for customers, often by offering intuitive self-service tools. On the other hand, there may be times when a good CX means smoothing the way with high-touch customer care. Finally a truly CX-focused firm always ensures that it delivers its promised value to customers. To cover all those bases, B2B service providers need to manage and measure their CX success across multiple touchpoints, from publishing content that encourages self-guided research to training account reps to offer service and guidance to managing survey programs and acting on customer feedback.

Yes, CXM is a lot — but it’s worth it! When you provide an exceptional CX, your customers’ loyalty and positive word of mouth will pay you back in dividends. As Gartner’s Customer Service Experience report states, “Great service experiences may stem customer attrition, but only ‘value enhancing’ service experiences drive retention and growth.” We’ll let the numbers do the talking: 86% of customers are likely to spend more money after receiving value-enhanced services, and 97% will share their positive experience with others.

3 points that prove B2B CX is having its moment

If you haven’t yet announced to your team that 2024 will be your “CX Era,” get ready to. I’ll give you three more reasons.

1. Ignoring your CX leads to B2B customer loss.

A bad experience is one of the top reasons a customer will leave a brand, and younger generations are increasingly likely to abandon ship for this reason. According to the B2B Buyer Report, 74% of B2B buyers would switch suppliers if offered a better experience. And it’s not all hypothetical. According to Forrester, 67% of clients say that they’ve already switched professional service firms due to a poor CX.

2. Your B2B clients are B2C consumers—and they expect a good CX.

Your clients lead double lives. Shocking, I know. When they’re not at work, they’re at home… being consumers — consumers who benefit from great CX journeys provided by B2C companies. This means that B2B customer expectations are higher, and they’re losing patience.

Kevin Neher, a McKinsey & Company Senior Partner on a Harvard Business Review-hosted podcast said it well: “What we’re seeing is that it’s B2B companies… companies that serve businesses, companies that serve all these other industries, are now the ones trying to catch up.” He points out that someone who can get a package from Amazon in less than 48 hours is going to start to wonder why they can’t get the supplies they need for their business as quickly.

In fact, research from McKinsey has been pointing out B2B’s lagging CX since 2016, when it published comparison stats (back then B2B companies’ CX ratings already lagged 15–35% behind B2C ratings) and astutely predicted that the gap would grow ever more obvious as B2B customer expectations rise.

3. Great CXM fosters customer loyalty that fuels growth.

Consider this stat from Forrester: 73% of clients are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. Sounds pretty good considering we’ve all been racked with inflationary pressure, right? Plus, customer retention is less expensive than customer acquisition.

Here’s more from another McKinsey report: Companies that have improved their CX see their sales revenues improve by up to 7%, bumping their profitability by up to 2%. And that’s not all! Their overall shareholder return increased by up to 10%.

Arrive early to the B2B CX buffet table—there’s a feast for the taking

B2C companies have understood the innate value of investing in their CX for a while now, but B2B firms have been slower. According to research by B2B International, just 14% of large B2B companies are truly customer centric. While 31% are at least engaged in a fledgling customer focus, it still presents a huge white space for B2B CX champions to win the game. Imagine all the low-hanging fruit your firm could pick if you master it early.

I’ll share a round up of our most updated NPS benchmarks by industry below. The Net Promoter Score® is a great gauge of a company’s CX efforts. As you compare the numbers, keep two things in mind:

1. The firms included in our benchmarks are demonstrating a certain threshold of CXM by using our client satisfaction survey program, so they’re likely ahead of most competitors in their field and
2. Leading B2C companies include Starbucks and USAA, with a 77% and a 75% NPS, respectively.

Average 2023 NPS by industry

Please notice the positive movement over the past few years, which shows the possibilities for quick improvement once you dedicate resources to your CX.

• B2B Services = 39%
  (-1% YOY, but +14 points since 2020)
• IT Services = 42%
  (-2 points YOY, +4 since 2020, +28 since its low in 2017)
• Legal Services = 37%
  (+5 points YOY; +11 since 2020)
• Insurance = 36%
  (-6 points YOY, +19% since 2020)
• HR Services = 46%
  (+9% YOY, +31 since 2020)
• Staffing = 36%
  (+5 YOY, +8% since 2020, +38 points since a low of -2% in 2019)
• Accounting –+41%
  (+2% YOY, +18 points since 2020)

How to move your B2B CX forward

To catch up with consumer expectations, B2B companies can’t just, well… catch up. They need to move beyond traditional internal CXM that simply “measures and diagnoses” into fully modernized, proactive CXM that acts on customer insights, enhances your online reputation and, based on the merit of your CX, helps acquire new business. To do this, keep in mind that your own employees are an important audience too, as they affect your CX. Happy employees help inspire 360-degree loyalty.

To achieve this, you can’t just think you know how your clients feel, you must work to know how they feel. In fact, based on our own research we know that 16% of customers won’t ever tell you or your firm when they have a service issue, yet 74% will complain about it to others. Ouch. This is why companies must move from static, annual surveys that yield outdated intel by the time they get it, to timely, insight-focused surveys that you can act on now and use to anticipate upcoming needs.

Learn more about how to move your tired B2B CX forward. Watch my webinar The Evolution of CX: What’s Now and What’s Next in which we share 10 ways to improve your CX.