The Golden Rule: Listen to Customers
November 2003 - BEK Best Practices Newsletter
Do you know what your customers need? Do you
so deeply understand your customers problems that they are
the center of your product roadmaps, feature development,
and service offerings? If you can’t clearly articulate
your customers pains and needs, you are not alone.
With the economy slow over the past three
years, it’s easy to pay lip-service to the notion
of being “customer-driven.” But in reality most
companies have been “survival-driven” in order
to stay alive. That often manifests in a focus on closing
deals this month, regardless of whether it meets your customer
needs or brings you the type of customers you really want:
the ones who provide repeat business and referrals.
Spend One-Fourth of Your Time Listening
Most of you have probably taken writing and speaking
classes, but very few of us are ever trained on how to listen.
Let’s take a look at what it means to listen to your
customer and what results you can expect.
Whether you are a product marketing manager,
a product manager, or a hybrid of the two, you need to spend
at least one week a month in the field listening to customers,
prospects, analysts, thought leaders, and your channels.
If you’re an executive, you are far from excluded;
you need to be out there asking questions and listening
too. The feedback you will receive will be invaluable.
What to ask and listen for
If you can identify and solve your customers problem
before and better than your competitors and on an ongoing
basis watch your revenues and profits soar. Your questions
should center around what kinds of problems, how expensive
those problems are, and how committed your customers are
to solving those problems:
- What is the problem and how long has it been happening?
- What, if anything, have they done to resolve it?
Did it work? If it didn’t why? If it did, why?
- What is the cost to the company of not resolving
this problem? The cost to fix it? Opportunity costs?
- How does this impact your customer?
- What trends are thought-leaders seeing? Where do
they think they are headed?
Lets take a look at a company I did some work
for: Aspect Communications.
Case Study: How Listening Turned One
Product into The Industry Standard
Aspect Communications, is the world’s largest company
focused exclusively on contact center solutions. In the
early 90’s, Aspect was looking to leapfrog the competition
with a new Windows solution, in a time when everyone else
had dumb terminals and legacy applications. At the time,
I was leading a team that consisted of product marketing,
product management and engineering.
We created a prototype based on the requirements
that I had documented and ideas from engineering. The prototype
that was developed is what we thought the market wanted.
With a video camera in tow, I took the prototype out to
customers and prospects for usability testing. The results
were staggering.
Based on the customer feedback the user interface
was totally revamped. We added a significant amount of functionality
that had not been thought of, and we were able to clearly
define and develop exactly what data needed to be captured
for reporting purposes.
The product, Aspect CustomView Producer, went
on to win numerous awards and set the industry standard.
Customers raved about it. Competitors copied it. Sales loved
it. It was sold in nearly every Aspect deal and the company
derived additional revenues from add-on sales. And all because
Aspect took the time to talk with customers.
How Listening Creates Good Products
Think about the time (or two) your customers have complained
about a product. After a few calls, you send someone to
the customer site. By listening to the customer, you can
better understand the customer’s working environment
and the problem they are trying to solve with your product
– and why your product isn’t solving the problem.
Perhaps you see where the current interface
is deficient and how your application interfaces (or doesn’t)
with other applications. As a result of this customer visit,
you can gather the information you need to solve the problem.
And back at the office, you can make changes to the product
that will benefit all your customers.
Too Much Listening Turns You into
a Custom Shop
There is a down side to listening to your customers, and
as with most things in life, there is a point where you
must stop. In product marketing and management, that point
is when you are making so many changes in response to your
customers requests that you become a custom shop.
You must balance listening to customer requirements
against the needs of all of your customers. Initial requirements
can come from one or two customers, but you need to test
the requirements with other customers. Your product should
solve problems for 80 percent of your customers, not just
one or two.
Make Listening to Customers Part of
Your Development Process
Even in today’s sluggish climate, you can establish
a repeatable process that guides you through the product
life cycle. It will require iterations, focus, the use of
common sense, and more prototyping.
As time-consuming as it may seem, talking
with your customers will save you thousands of hours and
dollars in reworking ideas that your customers don’t
want. Do usability studies early and often to understand
how they work. Communicate what you’ve learned to
engineering, and you will get a better product that sells
and sells and sells.
Other Uses for Listening to Customers
Talking to customers isn’t just for developing or
enhancing products. What about your marketing messages?
Are they resonating with customers, prospects and partners?
How about your service options? Do they meet the needs of
your customer base? Are they competitive? What do industry
analysts think about your company? Your products and services?
What can you do in order to influence them? How about partners?
How successful are your partner relationships? When is the
last time you talked to your partners in order to better
understand their needs and make the partnership more powerful?
We encourage you to spend more time listening
to your customers, prospects, partners, analysts and market
thought-leaders. If you are like us, you will find that
there is always something to be learned.
Please feel free to send us your new product
stories and questions. We encourage you to forward this
email to others using the link below.
For more information, contact BEK Enterprises
at:
Web: www.bekteam.com
E-mail:
Phone: 650-631-2800
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Copyright
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written
and edited by
Blair Koch, BEK Enterprises. All rights reserved. 2003
You may reprint material from this newsletter in other electronic
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is included in the credits.
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