The voice of the customer, an essential complement to sector analysis

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Why is it important to start listening to the voice of consumers when starting to analyse the sector? As we have already mentioned, there are products that gain a large number of followers almost from the moment they appear on the market. However, they only gain popularity after several phases and attempts to develop communication in the company-customer relationship.

At the current pace of product innovation, exceptional attention must be paid to analysing customer needs, as this is the only way to ensure market survival. Is it possible to do business according to the latvia email list famous blue ocean strategy of creating new market spaces to be proud of? How to create new demand and make competition irrelevant? The main axis of this strategy is innovation, with the aim of creating new value for customers and the company itself. Innovation used to be equated with an amazing product that revolutionises an industry. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Innovation can also occur at the level of customer relations, in the way the product is delivered, and at any other level related to the business model. One example is the publishing industry, which has revolutionized the standard approach to book publishing. The website lulu.com offered every hobbyist the opportunity to publish his or her own book, and allowed buyers to completely "customize" the available elements (cover, format, paper, illustrations, etc.). All for an appropriate fee, of course. The final price of the selected book depends on the options chosen. An ordinary product - an extraordinary sales approach. The company has created a thriving business in a difficult publishing market. The founders have developed a new, "subversive" business model that could dominate the industry within a decade.

We don't know what inspired the founders of lulu.com, but we can assume that it wasn't industry analysis per se. After all, industry analysis has its drawbacks. So does listening to customers. Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, said: If I had asked customers early in my career as an entrepreneur what they wanted, they would all have agreed: we want faster horses. So I didn't ask them. Such situations still occur today. That's why it's especially important to be careful of miscommunication. Customers know what results they want, but not necessarily how best to achieve them. An example? The manufacturer of a chainsaw may hear different and completely contradictory opinions about a problem with the equipment. One user would like the power cord to be longer, because it wouldn't get tangled underfoot. Another user, however, will say that the cord should be shorter, because that would solve the problem. So it's not worth paying special attention to customers' suggestions, but to the results they want to achieve. When conducting a standard customer satisfaction survey, the focus should be on the right wording of the questions. Referring back to the example above: instead of asking “what would you like to change about the machine,” we should ask “what would you expect to change” or “what problems do you encounter during use.” The rest is up to the IT team, who should adjust the saw so that the cord doesn’t get in the way. The technologists will most likely design a cordless version that will satisfy both customers.