During the digital transformation planning process, a company distributed surveys and found that customers wanted a more detailed order status…

The company systematically solicited customer input, translated it into a design change (an online order-status feature), and then re-measured satisfaction. Capturing, analyzing, and acting on customer-stated needs is the classic definition of Voice of the Customer (VOC) and is a core practice in APICS digital-transformation methodology.

A. Data mining extracts patterns from large data sets; it is not focused on proactively capturing articulated customer needs.
C. Balanced scorecard is a strategic performance-measurement system, not a method for gathering customer requirements.
D. Customer service is the functional area that delivers assistance; the scenario describes the process for identifying what service is needed, i.e., VOC.

1. ASCM “Certified in Transformation for Supply Chain (CTSC) Learning System,” Module 1, Sec. 3.3, Voice of the Customer, p. 1-44.

2. APICS Dictionary, 16th ed., “Voice of the Customer,” p. 172.

3. MIT OpenCourseWare, 15.783 “Product Design & Development,” Lecture 2 notes, VOC discussion, slide 8.

4. K. Ulrich & S. Eppinger, Product Design & Development, 6th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2016, Ch. 5, pp. 94-97.