Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Do You Really Know What Customers Need?
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Q. How do we understand our customers better?
A. Success means creating communities! Having a community of customers means developing connections and interactions with those people who use and like your product. One example is the Ring doorbell video. When it was invented, big competitors could have easily overtaken the small startup’s product. But the founder and his team integrated the Neighbors’ service so that neighbors could share their observations and surveillance of their property with others. Having this product and service was a key differentiator.
Understanding your customers and their challenges and problems means connecting with them and listening to them. That does NOT mean scheduling time and then giving them a demo or Power Point presentation. Instead, ask questions. Do at least 80% of the time together listening and asking questions—and more questions. Watch how they use your product or service. Hear what frustrates them.
Polls, surveys, focus groups will provide weak feedback. To understand them, co-create new products and services for them. They are your community, your ambassadors for your future. The strength of your connections and relationships will create the strength of a healthy organization. And use this process with your employees (your internal customers), too.
Q. Our company has had a decline in customers in recent months, but we’re not sure why. What do we do?
A. Think about the quality and value that your customers need from you. Did you provide it in the past and now something has changed? What do your customers need from you (choose the top three most important traits of your product or service)? Do they expect speed, safety, product quality, continual innovation to solve their problems, fast responses?
Whatever they need is your top priority. Do you have the leadership thinking, the team, the resources, the mindset to deliver it? Can your team draw a direct line from what they do to what the customers need? Or do the barriers inside your company get in the way of serving the customer? So often what customers want and need are so clear from the outside perspective, yet the complexity and waste inside the company is overwhelming. People are stuck in the minutia, the details, the analytics. Instead, they need to ask and answer the basic questions: what do our customers expect, and how are we at delivering it to provide the ultimate experience and satisfaction?
