Why you should never listen to your customers

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Why You Should NEVER Listen to Your Customers

Apr 6th 2010 9:49AM

An article by John Doerr had a great quote from technology luminary Alan Kay that every entrepreneur needs to remember "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

I'm working with a company that at one point had a product that was not only best in class, but also technically far ahead of its competition. It created a better way of offering its service and customers loved it and paid for it. Then it made a fatal mistake. It asked its customers what features they wanted to see in the product and they delivered on those features. Unfortunately for this company, its competitors didn't ask customers what they wanted. Instead, they had a vision of ways that business could be done differently and as a result better. Customers didn't really see the value or need, until they saw the product. When they tried it , they loved it.

So what did my company do when they saw what their competitor had done ? They repeated their mistake and once again asked their customers what they wanted in the product. Of course the customer responded with features that they now loved from the other product.

They didn't improve their competitive positioning. They put themselves in a never ending revolving door of trying to respond to customer requests. To make matters worse, resources and brainpower that could be applied to "inventing the future" were instead being used to catch up with features that locked them into the past.

Entrepreneurs always need to be reminded that its not the job of their customers to know what they don't know. In other words, your customers have a tough enough time doing their jobs. They don't spend time trying to reinvent their industries or how their jobs are performed. Sure, every now and then you come across an exception. But you can't bet the company on your finding that person at one of your customers.

Instead, part of every entrepreneurs job is to invent the future. I also call it "kicking your own ass". Someone is out there looking to put you out of business. Someone is always out there who thinks they have a better idea than you have. A better solution than you have. A better or more efficient product than you have. If there is someone out there who can "kick your ass" by doing it better, its part of your job as the owner of the company to stay ahead of them and "kick your own ass" before someone else does.

Your customers can tell you the things that are broken and how they want to be made happen. Listen to them. Make them happy. But they won't create the future roadmap for your product or service. That's your job.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Words that should always be part of your product or service planning.
#customers #listen
  • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
    BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT ALL THE MARKETING GOO ROOS AROUND HERE PREACH... ADAMANTLY PREACH.... THAT THE ONLY WAY TO SELL ANYTHING TO ANYONE IS TO SOLELY BUILD PRODUCTS AROUND WHAT PEOPLE TELL YOU THAT THEY'RE WILLING TO PAY FOR!!!!!!!!!!!











    I'll take the billionaire for $1000 Alex.
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    Like any statistic or saying it can be scewed the wrong way.

    In reality it was just a stupid company but that does not necessarily mean the principle of asking your customers is wrong. Just they implemented the wrong way.

    Car companies never ask the customer who buys a new car once every 5 or 10 years they ask the corporate customer who buys 20 a month.

    So the thing is to get your customers feedback but then to add your entrepreneurial spin to it all.

    The emyth was all about this. A hotel definitely needs to get their customers feedback and the better they implement it the more powerful their service.

    The Internet is also filled with low cost items and these need to be developed around customer needs.

    I sell PLR articles and definitly have them produced around customer input.

    There are very few industry changing products around however it is not just inovation and entrepreneur input but time and social constructs that determine their success.

    So it is not so much customers in general but which customers you ask that is the answer.

    A good example was the new e type jaguar. They put it together in the way they thought and aimed at the yuppie market. They forgot one thing which they would have found out by asking their customers. An ipod jack into the stereo.

    No ipod connection no sales.

    Quentin
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Hey Scott,

    I'm not going to begin to pretend I know better than that guy - thanks for sharing
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    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    The article writer has a point but he is talking about another type
    of product rather than products in general.

    Eskimos wouldn't buy an ice-making machine. So you cannot ignore
    the customer needs. At the same time there are products that
    the customer doesn't know he needs yet until he is introduced to
    them.

    So not every product could be invented based on customer needs,
    but it's far harder to create a need than to simply satisfy an existing
    one.

    -Ray Edwards
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    • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
      Originally Posted by Raydal View Post

      The article writer has a point but he is talking about another type
      of product rather than products in general.

      Eskimos wouldn't buy an ice-making machine. So you cannot ignore
      the customer needs. At the same time there are products that
      the customer doesn't know he needs yet until he is introduced to
      them.

      So not every product could be invented based on customer needs,
      but it's far harder to create a need than to simply satisfy an existing
      one.

      -Ray Edwards

      Ray, the article writer is a billionaire that owns an NBA team after selling a website to Yahoo in the 90s.

      His premise is to not get caught up in the present needs, but to envision the needs of the customer down the road and spend your product development effort there, not on the present.

      I think "type" of product is irrelevant actually, the variables are the timeframe for the vision to materialize into a viable market.

      An eskimo might buy an ice machine in 500 years if the polar ice cap melts and they need to keep their seal meat fresh.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    It sounds like the lesson of the Edsel, part two.
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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  • Profile picture of the author graemewallis
    Banned
    I agree to not listening to your customers when it comes to inventing a product. But you do have to satisfy them when they are purchasing your product.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Brimeyer
    Am I the only one who caught this...

    Notice the title says strongly "NEVER listen to your customers"

    and then a nice conclusion...

    Your customers can tell you the things that are broken and how they want to be made happen. Listen to them. Make them happy. But they won't create the future roadmap for your product or service. That's your job.
    Someone should write a blog post on "NEVER" contradicting yourself in your own blog post because it really doesn't help get the point across.

    All joking aside...

    I think this example is very limited in scope and the author may be right for their particular product but I don't think that it holds water on a larger basis.

    I think a better approach to this point would be by looking at the role of features vs. benefits. Features don't really make sales in any line of business. It's the benefits that those features provide and the emotions that become attached to those benefits that drive the sales.

    So my point is not so much that you should listen to your customers but rather find out what is going to get them the most emotionally invested in your product.

    For example, if they want to add a feature because it will make the product easier to use then you have to ask if that ease of use is going to have a direct effect on connecting with the customer base at the emotional level or is it just a feature that really ins't going to add any value.

    But if you don't listen to your customers then you're missing out on a lot of market research that could be very beneficial. However, you still have to know how to interpret that market research and use it properly which evidently the author's company did not.
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    I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt. I gsues I wsa wrogn.
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