Voice of the Customer

Project Managers, along other professionals, frequently use tools, techniques, and processes as a way to capture requirements, risks, and assumptions for their projects.

One technique which can be effective to capturing information from a customer is known as Voice of the Customer which produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs, organized into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current alternatives.

Data points can be both quantitative and qualitative in nature and expect diverse views as an individual customer will not usually focus equally on all process areas.

There are several ways in which to capture the varying voices of the customer. Those techniques include (but are not limited to):

• Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Interviews
• Observations
• Warranty Data
• Consumer Reports
• Customer Specifications
• Field reports
• Complaint logs