Innovating for your Customers with your Customers!
If you want loyal customers, you must first be loyal to your customers!
What does that even mean?
Loyalty means investing in them as much or more as they do in you. It means obsessing over their every want and need. It means making their dreams, wants, and desires, your sole purpose. If your customers take time to find your product and select over those of your competitors, it is your responsibility to take time to invest in them by asking them what they want and providing it.
Shocking principle I know. Ask people what they want and give it to them. But it’s the foundation of the entrepreneurial journey to creating solutions for paying customers. Ultimately, it’s the businesses responsibility to constantly learn and grow with the needs of their current and future customers.
For a full unabridged explanation listen to this: Apple Podcast
“Let’s go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.” — Steve Jobs
This is easy, and complex at the same time.
It’s easy to ask and collect responses, but it’s difficult to discern.
Richie Norton in a recent article titled Discernment Will Be the Key Competency of this Decade said this about leaders and discernment:
“Discernment will become the number one leadership competency of the decade — the age of misinformation.” — Richie Norton
So how is do companies like Tesla Motors, Ford Motor Company, @Apple, stay ahead of the curve creating products for tomorrow while keeping up with today and yesterday’s head aches? They get to know their customers and the problems they want solved and create the solutions for them.
Apple is currently in hot water for their most recent launch of the iPhone 14, which looks almost identical to the 13 and has very similar specifications. Many are calling it a joke of innovation for what was once considered the most innovative company in the world.
Even Eve Jobs, the daughter of late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple laughed at the launch with the below instagram story.
Many fail to recognize that the phone will be maid in India a huge supply chain and operational win for Apple traditionally tied to China with long term commitments and relationships there. They will be driving profitability and increasing supply chain diversity with a new product. Innovating a new way to supply and creating new capabilities.
Investors are happy, and customers may benefit from some cost savings because of the move, but what about the customers? Do they see this as Apple investing in them as they did with the macbook pro, and the first iphone, and their other highly innovative products. Maybe, maybe not.
Small businesses are the best at identifying niches and capturing new customers before the big boys come to play. That’s how companies start. Someone comes along with a new product that is better at solving a solution that was previously untreated or treated poorly.
“The riches are in the niches, but the fortune is in the follow-up.” — Pat Flynn
Small businesses love their customers. They are fewer and are given lot’s of special attention. They know all of their customers, wants, and needs and are constantly asking for feedback.
Traditionally there are 3 ways to learn more about your customers:
- Survey’s and Focus Groups — This could be large or small. Could be done with a simple instagram survey or with a large market research firm. Ultimately what matters most is to ask the right questions to the right people to get the right answers.
- Social Media & Google Trends — FREE resources at your fingertips. hitting the socials tracking the trends, the hashtags, the sounds, locations, colors, etc. TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook, and Search Engine reports are free and tremendous resources to helping discern the future needs of customers
- Trade shows and events — Attending trade shows and fairs is a great way to see what companies are putting forward as their future products. What the demand they are working to fulfill is.
At the end of the day there are many options to invest in your customers and ask them what they want. Creating a company culture that is constantly asking itself, what can I do for my customers today, tomorrow, and a year from now is how businesses stay relevant and thrive.
To learn more about this topic visit: The Product Guy Podcast
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