April 28, 2026

Stop Listening to Customers – Start Understanding Them

By CXM Editorial

By Michael Chiu, Distinguished VP Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice and Chad Storlie, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Marketing Practice

The Problem: More Feedback, Less Clarity

Organisations at their critical customer-facing touchpoints are surrounded by customer feedback like surveys, reviews, call recordings, chat logs, CRM notes and social media commentary. Yet many leaders still struggle to answer critical questions: Why are customers leaving? Which aspects of our experience frustrate customers most? What’s driving repeat contacts? The root cause isn’t a lack of listening. It’s an unfocused approach to voice of the customer (VoC) that treats “more data” as the same thing as “more insight.” In reality, collecting vast amounts of information can be inefficient if only a small fraction is used to drive decisions. The result is a familiar pattern: VoC is praised as essential, but its value to the organisation remains low. The operational impact is inconsistent, or worse from the customer perspective, non-existent.

Six Steps for Improved Customer Understanding

A more effective path is to build a VoC programme around six practical steps:

1. Who do you want to hear from?
2. Who will use the data?
3. What questions do you want to answer?
4. What data do you already have?
5. What data do you need?
6. What were the results?

This framework shifts VoC from a passive listening exercise into an active learning cycle, and one that is more efficient. It is this active learning cycle that transforms VoC from a “nice to know” function into a strategic competitive advantage.

Define the “Who” of VoC

Not all customer voices are equally important. “Survey everyone” sounds inclusive, but often blurs the differences between audiences and creates misleading averages. A better approach is to identify the customer groups most critical to hear from. For example, do you want to hear from new customers? High-value customers? Prospective customers? Or perhaps even former customers?

Then define the internal audience: who will use VoC insights? Marketing may want to better understand brand perception. Product teams might seek out feature feedback. Customer service leaders could be interested in feedback on pain points and channel friction. Bringing these stakeholders together early – via workshops or interviews – clarifies what insights matter and how they’ll be applied.

Identify and Prioritise the Most Valuable Customer Questions

Replace broad, unfocused questions with those that are precise and actionable. For example:

• “What do customers think of us?” → “Why are our customers leaving us?”
• “Are our communications clear?” → “Which messages do customers find unclear or misleading?”
• Are customers satisfied with our service? → What specific aspects of our service do customers find most frustrating?

Begin by drafting five customer-focused questions to help your organisation improve CX, operate more efficiently or make better decisions. Next, interview leaders across the organisation and ask each to also contribute five questions, resulting in an aggregated list of perhaps 50 questions.

Next, prioritise the list of questions. One approach is to use the Eisenhower Matrix, scoring each question by its urgency and importance. Alternatively, prioritise based on potential impact, such as:

• CX. Which aspects of our service frustrate customers most?
• Competitive performance. Why are customers leaving us?
• Financial performance. Why are customers ordering fewer products than last year?

Audit Existing Data Before Collecting Anything New

To answer the questions identified above, many organisations immediately start collecting new feedback, but neglect to identify which questions could be answered with existing information already on hand. Start with an audit of structured data (e.g., surveys, CRM records, purchase history, web analytics) and unstructured data (e.g., calls, chats, emails, social posts). Modern VoC platforms and GenAI can analyse unstructured interactions at scale, surfacing themes and patterns hidden in everyday service conversations.

Only after you answer as many of your most valuable questions with existing data should you embark upon collecting new data to answer the remaining high-priority questions. That might include methods such as targeted surveys, interviews, focus groups, customer panels, and social listening.

Operationalise Insights, Then Prove Impact

VoC programmes often stall at the “insights” stage. The final step is the one that creates value: act on what you learn and measure the result. Establish an internal tracking mechanism to document stakeholders’ actions based on these answers to the customer questions you identified and additional insights. Such actions can lead to CX improvements, which materialise in higher customer satisfaction. Also, assess the quality of VoC outputs by integrating them into strategic planning, product development and decision making. Embedding VoC across the organisation ensures that customer-centricity is a guiding principle, not just a slogan. Your employees should not have to guess how to serve customers effectively to make a customer satisfied – that insight comes from VoC analysis.

The Payoff: Less Noise, More Understanding

When VoC becomes a continuous cycle – focused audiences, prioritised questions, expanded use of existing data, targeted collection and measurable action – leaders stop “listening harder” and start understanding better. And that’s where real CX improvement begins.