# Voice of the Customer — mine their actual words

This is the highest-value thing this skill produces. Copy that uses the audience's **own
language** for their problem feels like it gets them, and it outperforms copy written in the
brand's internal jargon — often dramatically. So instead of inventing how the audience talks, you
collect how they actually talk, and build a **language bank** the content skills draw from.

> The rule: capture verbatim, don't paraphrase. The moment you "clean up" a customer's messy
> real phrase into marketing-speak, you lose the exact thing that makes it resonate.

## Where the real language lives

Mine whatever is available. Richest sources first:

1. **Reviews** — the brand's *and competitors'*. Reviews are people describing problems and
   desired outcomes in their own words. Competitor reviews reveal unmet needs and objections.
2. **Social comments & replies** — on the brand's posts, competitors', and relevant big accounts
   in the niche. Unfiltered reactions and questions.
3. **Reddit, forums, niche communities, Discords** — where the audience talks to *each other*,
   not to brands. The most honest language and the real questions.
4. **Support tickets & FAQs** — the friction points, in the words people use when frustrated.
5. **Sales-call notes & objections** — the buyer's hesitations, verbatim. Gold for B2B.
6. **DMs & customer conversations** — direct, candid.
7. **Search queries / "people also ask" / autocomplete** — exactly how they phrase what they
   want.
8. **Testimonials** — the transformation (before → after) in the customer's own words.

Use what the user provides; if the agent can access public sources (reviews, subreddits,
comments), mine those. If little is available, say so and mark the language bank as provisional.

## The method

1. **Collect verbatim.** Pull real phrases — the messier and more specific, the better. Keep the
   exact words.
2. **Cluster** them into:
   - **Problem language** — how they describe the pain ("I never know if I'm doing it right").
   - **Desire language** — the outcome they want ("I just want it done and off my plate").
   - **Objection language** — why they hesitate ("switching sounds like a nightmare").
   - **Category language** — the words they use for the product/category (which may differ from
     yours — "the money stuff," not "financial operations").
3. **Build the language bank** — an organized list of these real phrases.

## Why mirroring wins

- It signals understanding — "they're describing my exact situation."
- It lowers the comprehension cost — no translating your jargon into their reality.
- It surfaces objections you can answer before they're voiced.
- It often beats clever copy, because recognition beats cleverness.

Internal jargon ("streamline your financial operations") is the opposite — it sounds like the
brand talking to itself. The audience says "I'm drowning in receipts." Use *that*.

## The language bank (what to hand downstream)

A section in `audience.md` like:

```
LANGUAGE BANK
- Problem: "I don't even know where to start", "terrified I'll mess up taxes", "drowning in receipts"
- Desire: "just want it done", "get my evenings back", "stop thinking about it"
- Objection: "switching seems painful", "probably too expensive for me", "I'm not technical"
- They call it: "the money stuff", "bookkeeping", NOT "financial operations"
```

Content skills (especially `caption-writer` and `hook-writer`) pull hooks, pains, and CTAs
straight from this — so the brand sounds like it lives in the audience's world.

## Honesty guardrail

If you couldn't find real evidence for a phrase, **don't put it in the bank as fact.** Either
mark it "(assumed — validate)" or leave it out. A small bank of real phrases is worth more than a
big one of invented ones.


---
资料：Frank Heijdenrijk / pavelhov/social-media-skills

原始版本：https://github.com/pavelhov/social-media-skills/blob/1680b37bf0dc32b52da247a8196ef27a6cd47bd4/skills/audience-research/references/voice-of-customer.md

许可：MIT。目录与内部链接已经整理，未收录图片已省略。

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