Why considering the needs of your customer is always right for your business
By: Joe Wilson
Tags: Customer Journey, Design Thinking, Empathy, Design Thinking Culture, Customer Experience

Why considering the needs of your customer is always right for your business Joe Wilson Follow Oct 13 · 5 min read

Photo by Thomas Claeys on Unsplash

Because empathy always wins

Most of the time, business owners focus on what’s right for their business. Controlling overhead costs, increasing margins, these numbers drive business decisions as they are essential operating functions that can’t be overlooked.

But once that’s handled, and your business planning is done for the year, quarter or month, close the book or spreadsheet, and think of your customer. You know, the human being buying your product or service that affords you the revenue to be able to control your costs and margins? Without them, you have nothing.

If we lose sight of our customer needs and only focus on processes that benefit our own wants and needs, then what happens to theirs? Well, they become secondary and out of focus.

This is the beginning of the end for your business.

In the Harvard Business Review article, Are You Really Innovating Around Your Customers’ Needs by Sunil Gupta, there’s a perfect example of how gas stations miss the mark on what customers want. Their focus is on adding value to the visit to the gas station — with quick coffee pickup, Amazon drop-offs, even robotic gas pumping — all missing what the customer really wants, which is to not have to go to a gas station in the first place. True innovation and meeting customer needs would give the customer what they want, how they want it, like getting gas delivered to your driveway to fill your tank.

Staying with the gas delivery example, you may choose not to innovate and continue your current business model of providing gas to customers at the station. That may still work for a few years, but in that time you’re allowing competitors to innovate new solutions and meet customer needs before you do, building loyalty and giving an exceptional customer experience while taking your market share. All because they listened to what the customer wanted instead of providing what you think they want, or what’s more convenient and comfortable to continue doing for your business.

You may choose not to meet their needs, for one reason or another (fear of change, realizing your current processes are outdated, etc.), but their needs must always be considered.

Because if you don’t listen to your customer, your competitor will

We are nothing without our customers. We should start treating them that way.

We need to provide more value than simply selling the product or service they’re looking for, unless you’ve created a new segment with no competition, in which case, bravo! For everyone else, there’s plenty of other companies that can do what you do and sell what you sell, so how do you provide value?

Listen to them. Speak to them, observe their behavior and understand what’s important to them. Then change your processes, offerings, payment methods — whatever it is that you’re not doing that turns them off — to better serve them.

A Walker study found that by the end of this year, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.

According to the PwC Future of CX report, 59% of Americans will leave a brand they love after two or more bad experiences, with 17% leaving after just one negative experience.

Source: PwC Future of CX Report — https://www.pwc.com/future-of-cx

Taken directly from the report:

Among all customers, 73% point to experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions, behind price and product quality. Customers are willing to pay more for the experience qualities that matter most to them: 43% of consumers would pay more for greater convenience, 42% would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience.

Source: PwC Future of CX Report — https://www.pwc.com/future-of-cx

The data suggests customers will pay more for convenience, efficiencies and easy payment (among others), and have a high likelihood of leaving your brand if you do not provide a great experience, which should include making things easy and convenient for them to buy or interact with you. So what are you waiting for?

Because customers expect more than just answers

Customer expectation goes beyond whether you provide the product or service they are looking for. Your offerings should go deeper, too. Instead, know what they want and need throughout their journey, down to how they want to interact with you and how they want to purchase.

How many times have you left a website because their checkout process had too many steps or didn’t offer your preferred payment method like PayPal? In this case, the website ‘had’ what you needed in terms of product, but fell short in terms of experience.

Amazon has it down to a science with their ‘Buy Now’ button. This observation from GoodUI.org, a testing project by Jakub Linowski, shows how Amazon was A/B testing different options and experiences for customers using various payment methods.

The A version shows the ‘Add to Cart’ and ‘Buy Now’ options stacked next to each other whereas the B version only shows the ‘Add to Cart’ option. The stacked version which shows both options emerged as the winner.

Amazon knows a lot about their customers by collecting multiple data points of usage on their platform. If customers are ready to buy, they shouldn’t have to type in their mailing address and billing information each time. Amazon knows this and built a product that fills the needs of their customer, and in the process, builds trust and loyalty out of convenience.

In conclusion

Always choose empathy, listen to your customer, and do more than just provide answers. Create people-centric products that focus on customer pain points, and you’ll be sure you’re solving the right problems.

There’s no question that the customer should always be present when you’re designing processes, flows and paths to purchase. If you don’t consider them, why should they consider you?