Customer innovation

“When scanning for signals of EMERGING CHANGE, the difficulty is not in finding information; it is in WHAT TO ATTEND to and what you can ignore.”

Marion Debruyne.

The perspective of your existing customers views the market close up and in depth. This narrow market view gives you the clearest and MOST RELIABLE PICTURE. Your goal is to UNDERSTAND 🧐 and UTILIZE the INSIGHTS 💡your customers can offer.

HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS TO IMPROVE THEIR RESULTS‼️ Many companies prioritize innovation, but incremental and breakthrough changes are challenging 🏄🏼‍♂️ Try to pursue opportunities for small improvements. Making frequent small-step product/services fixes requires a culture that EMBRACES CHANGE, and so does implementing market-changing breakthroughs 🧩

To COLLABORATE within the existing customer, make your clients a viable part of your firm. EMPOWER THEM within all your communication channels. Instead of involving clients only in end-stage product testing, invite them to be “CO-CREATORS” at the beginning of a product cycle. 🎨 Build a strong “platform/channel” for customer communities to SHARE EXPERIENCES, PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. Let the results your clients seek guide 🧭 your sales force, advisory board and product designers. Your customers can become your advocates by referring new buyers and generating word of mouth.

✍️ To connect with your existing customers, adopt 5️⃣ CONSUMER-CONNECTION PRACTICES that yield rich information:

📌 HEED CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS – Companies learn a lot about their products from unsolicited customer input, such as service calls, emails and social-media postings. ☎️

📌 Pursue “IMMERSIVE CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING” – Customer responses obtained from quantitative surveys provide limited insights; customers don’t always know or understand what features they want. IMMERSIVE INFORMATION reveals critical understandings, including “unarticulated needs,” emotional benefits, “user customization,” and the CUSTOMER’S CONTEXT AND REASONS for using your product. 👨🏻‍🔬

📌 EXPLOIT ALL DATA – Companies may have more customer information than they know how to use, such as data gathered from purchase records. Tap into these sources for more data 👩🏻‍💻

📌 USE CUSTOMER IDEAS – Your clients may generate workable ideas when they express their FRUSTRATIONS 😤 with your products in focus groups or on direct communication channels.

📌 View “CUSTOMERS AS DEVELOPERS” – Consumers often suggest solutions that lead to new products. Foster these interactions🔗

📖 CUSTOMER INNOVATION, Marion Debruyne.