Guessing game

Malcolm Gladwell wrote an entire book on how little we know other people. We overestimate our ability to understand other human beings. Yet, the truth is that we’re not very good at guessing what other people need or want from us.

So, what chance do you have when guessing what customers want from you? Not much.

The alternative to guessing is to ask the people you’re trying to reach. The goal of market research is to understand the drivers of customer satisfaction, and where we can deliver better value. 

We start by defining the opportunity. 

To do this, we might ask, “Where are we struggling to connect?” The question will vary, depending on your business. When I ran a fast food restaurant, the question I asked daily was, “Where’s the bottleneck?” Once we identified it, the solution was usually in front of us. But we could never solve the bottleneck without first being aware of the opportunity to do better. Zero guessing games.

After defining the opportunity, we ask customers to tell us what they need from us. 

We are in service to the customer, so her need is always a priority. Through a voice of customer research, we can better understand the desires of customers and work to meet them in a timely manner. 

Delivering value could be as direct as communicating better, as creative as improving speed of delivery, or as exciting as innovating better.