Most new ideas and products are developed by companies after extensive customer research and analysis to meet their customers’ needs better than the competition. What most companies forget however is that instead of spending advertising dollars on consumer behaviour it is much more effective to just simply listen to what customers have to say. With social media sites and interactive user communities gaining popularity, customers are closer than ever before. In addition to meeting a genuine customer need, this involvement strengthens relationships and increases loyalty.
There are different levels of collaboration with customers. Usually companies solicit customer feedback or suggestions and then take it over from there. On the other hand, some companies may involve consumer feedback and ideation at every stage of the development process. Depending on the kind of product, both processes work and create a sense that the company cares about consumer perception.
So how does a company communicate with consumers? The simplest and easiest way is to establish a user group to encourage feedback and build a community. It acts as a forum to discuss customer concerns and future developments. It must also include company representatives to provide feedback and identify future requirements.
Another area where customer collaboration will help is when updating or modifying existing products. This requires companies to solicit customer views on the original product and the changes they would like to see. This creates the perception that the new product is tailor-made to customer requirements, strengthens relationships and increases customer loyalty.
Customer collaboration can also help in evaluating and testing new products. In fact, customer evaluation, or beta testing, is a well established mechanism in the software industry for involving customers in the product development process. This helps in identifying potential problems and shortcomings before market release.
Companies should understand how customers utilize their products. This is because with a good understanding of usage, it is possible to develop products better suited to their needs. If the company is engaged in the B2B market, awareness of their client’s key markets will help companies align their plans with customer plans.
Customer collaboration allows companies to not just meet customer demands, but anticipate them. The more a customer requires and uses a product, the more demanding that customer will be. By anticipating and meeting these demands, your customers remain happy and business improves.
Using these methods it is possible to gain business benefit and profit while increasing customer loyalty and goodwill. While most companies conduct some type of research, detailed inputs and customer insights are essential especially if a new product or service is produced. One mistake companies usually make is restricting consumer groups to announce release dates or problems or in response to a crisis. This is frustrating to customers who might need greater involvement and wasteful to companies that aren’t taking advantage.
Finally, while companies are understandably worried about bad feedback or negative reactions, customer collaboration can also give it new ideas, angles, perspectives or simply, a new point of view. After all, if the company wants to sell to the customer, it needs to listen to the customer as well. Your customer is calling you…are you therer?
