The best and least expensive sources for new product or service ideas knock on your door every day. They are begging to lend you their expertise free of charge. It might a new application for an existing product or an idea for a related item you could add to the product line. Maybe it’s an improvement that could make a product easier to use, less expensive to produce or more valuable to the consumer. Pay attention to them.
Are these people engineering consultants or CAD software designers or ergonomic experts? Well, yes and no. They are consultants, designers or product experts but they don’t necessarily do that for a living. Who are they? They are your customers calling to issue complaints or, on occasion, to offer product advice. People who use your products are probably more expert in the value and pitfalls of your products than you.
In the 1988 movie, Big, Tom Hanks plays Josh Baskin, a kid who wishes to become big and, overnight, gets his wish. Josh wakes up to find himself in his twenties without the knowledge or baggage that 15 years of life brings with it. He somehow becomes an executive with at toy manufacturer and in a product development meeting other executives describe a new toy proposal. Demographics, market research results, iterations of the design, revenue projections and the finished product idea are poured over and discussed. In the middle of the presentation, Josh Baskin, in his innocence says, “I don’t get it. Where’s the fun?” (The toy doesn’t interest the child, the consumer.) An “aha” moment. Someone who would actually use the product offers their input and the executives are confused and flabbergasted.
Sometimes we get too close to a product design or are so convinced that we are right, we forget the customer. They call, get lost in “press 2 for customer service” limbo and yet they persist. They write, they email and still we don’t tap into their expertise. But they insist on trying to get our attention. For every person who calls, countless customers don’t bother or hang up. The people who get through, those passionate few, have valuable information and deserve our attention. How should we “till this fertile ground”?
Ask and engage.
When a customer calls, solve their problem, (that’s obvious) but once that’s done get them talking. They want to be heard. Ask them:
• Why did you purchase our product instead of another?
• If you could make any improvements, what would they be?
• How do you use our product?
• What have you used in the past to perform this task? Brand? Cost?
• Etc, etc, etc.
The items above are some thought provokers. Put together a list of probing questions that are germane to your product or service for your customer service reps to ask. The key is to encourage your reps to have a dialogue with callers and keep it related to the product or task. Get them to write down notes and analyze every conversation. Look for similarities. Just like your products, services and brand, stress quality of the conversation not quantity. If your customer service reps are on a timer be sure it’s a benefit to the customer not an “efficiency” tool.
Want to take it to the next level? Especially if you are in business to business sales, gather contact information with heavy users, form a customer council and regularly contact them for ideas.
If you want to churn through customers and dispatch their “complaints” as quickly as possible, be my guest. But if you use customer calls to dig out information, you’ll discover, as Yosemite Sam used to say, “There’s gold in them thar hills!”