These days it’s easier than ever to get feedback from customers, they can simply send you an email, or perhaps respond to a poll on your website. You don’t even need your customers to get in touch with you, people are posting their thoughts on brands and products online and you simply need to search for them.
So you’ve got all this feedback, how much do you act on, is the customer really always right?
Based on feedback and requests from customers Innocent have recently released their first smoothie that doesn’t contain bananas. I for one was pleased to hear this, I’m a big fan of innocent smoothies, but not bananas, I thought I was in for the perfect smoothie!
However, it wasn’t to be. The bananaless smoothie wasn’t a patch on any of the previous smoothies I’ve had. Having not released a bananaless smoothie since they began in 1999 maybe Innocent knew it wouldn’t be as good, but bowed to fools like me who thought they knew what they wanted!
Of course I might be on my own and everyone else might love it (and innocent might have extensively tested the product to ensure this), and yes I am slightly over analysing a bad smoothie experience, but nevertheless it’s definitely still worth noting that the customer (me in this instance) might not actually always know what they want. People thought they wanted to make video calls on their phone, it appears they actually don’t. People often moan about the design of a website, then when it gets changed they want the old one back. People said they wouldn’t watch TV on a computer, the success of hulu and BBC iplayer suggests otherwise.
Yes you should search out customer feedback, and yes you should act on it, but with caution. Can their expectations actually be met, like with the smoothie, or can their expectations actually be exceeded as with web TV. The key is actually let the customer experience the product or service, methods such as beta modes and product testing can ensure you see if the customer really knows what they want.
