Claire Cunningham

For many organizations, customer listening still relies too heavily on a single metric or survey approach (often NPS or CSAT) despite growing evidence that it only tells part of the story. In complex, high-volume environments, effective customer listening requires bringing together multiple “voices” across channels and customer groups to truly understand friction and emerging issues.

In this session, Claire Cunningham, former Senior Manager, Voice of the Customer Experience at Coles and CX Network Advisory Board member, will share lessons from building and evolving VOC programmes in large retail environments. Drawing on experience combining loyalty-driven surveys, customer listening sessions, contact center data, and pulse research, she’ll explore what it takes to create a more holistic and sustainable listening strategy that captures both scale and nuance.

The session will also examine the role of AI in managing millions of data points and surfacing sentiment at speed, while making the case for why human insight remains essential for interpretation, prioritization, and action.

Attendees will learn:

• How to design a single, connected VOC program that brings together multiple sources of customer feedback.
• Why metrics like Customer Effort Score (CES) can be more actionable than NPS for reducing friction and improving CX.
• How to balance AI-driven analysis with human judgment to turn customer feedback into meaningful action.