Using Customer Feedback To Innovate Your Business
Here are several excerpts from an informative post by Hutch Carpenter, VP of Product at Spigit, 3 Models For Applying Customer Feedback to Innovation; for much more, check out the complete source article:
Customers have always been core to companies' existence. An obvious statement for sure. Customers are the source of cash flow, and have historically been thought of in marketing and transactional contexts.
But in recent years, we've seen the rise of a new way to consider customers. As vital influencers of company activities and strategies. Two popular ways this is taking form are the social CRM movement, and the emergence of open innovation.
If you follow discussions in these developing strategies, you see that there are differing views as to the value of customer feedback.
Understanding the different use cases of customer feedback helps organizations to set objectives and expectations appropriately, and to create effective frameworks for engaging customers.
Let's look at three models for applying customer feedback to innovation…
Features
Customers - hundreds, thousands, millions of them - are constantly using your products and services. This makes them well-positioned to suggest future product features and service enhancements. As a customer, you become intimately familiar with a product's utility, and what else you want to see.
Product's "Job"
The notion that customers hire your product to do a "job" is one I learned from Clayton Christensen. He stresses thinking of what customers need to accomplish, as opposed to thinking of product features or customer demographic segments. This frees your mind to address products differently than as a collection of features.
The challenge is to go deeper on what the customers are requesting. This is where customer feedback is not the final answer. Rather, it's an important clue as to what "job" your customers are hiring for.
Proposal
Roberto Verganti describes a "proposal" in his book, "Design-Driven Innovation". A proposal is a product that is not a linear change in your offering, but represents a radical change in meaning. Many purchases - such as a Starbucks coffee - have meaning beyond the coffee. In fact, I'd argue Starbucks has successfully performed a radical change in meaning with its coffee varieties, ‘baristas' and lifestyle experience. Much different than say, a Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds coffee.
Verganti also takes a fairly dogmatic position against customer-centric innovation. Rather, he argues for vision-centered innovation. The inspiration and sources for vision comes via learning from networks at the edge of societal change, within your industry and outside it. But it's not without a role for customers after all. As he recently wrote on the Harvard Business Review:
"They need to propose new unsolicited products and services that are both attractive, sustainable, and profitable. It is only within the framework of a vision-centered process that users can provide precious insights."
Engaging customers to get their ideas for something radically different holds great value here. This is not an exercise in determining market interest - although that might be a side outcome. Rather, it's a process of getting ideas to flesh out this proposal. Let customers help determine the radical innovation of meaning for a new concept.
Progress on the Open Innovation and Social CRM Fronts
As both open innovation and social CRM progress, think about the implications of these approaches on integrating customer feedback into innovation.
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About the Author:
Jim Berkowitz is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of professional services and project management experience related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Financial Management (Accounting & ERP) software solutions for small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. As a Sales Force Automation and CRM Consultant, Jim has assisted more then 100 companies with the design and implementation of custom CRM solutions.
Mr. Berkowitz is the founder and President of CRM Mastery, Inc.; a company dedicated to serving small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering affordable tools and guidance to help them plan for and succeed with their CRM initiatives.
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