Ask your customers to solve your toughest problems
Most companies instinctively hide their problems. That's the wrong answer.
Open up and ask your customers for help. They already know what's wrong (often more than you do), and they probably know how to fix it (often better than you).
Example: Customer support is a challenge for a tech company like Dell with 30 million customers, each with a different setup and knowledge level. So Dell went to their customers and asked them how to solve it. They put their best ideas on the Ideastorm web site for open, public, customer brainstorming.
Dell blogged about three great ideas that they found:
- Geeks to Grandmas: Service Customization
- Hello Again: Dedicated Teams
- I'll Pay for It: Price Packages by Service Level
I'm a big fan of the dedicated teams model. I've been a customer of PrintingForLess.com for more than 10 years, and the Silver Team knows exactly what I need. The people come and go, but the team still knows me and my many quirks.
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Zane Safrit said... (Apr 24, 2008 9:02:49 AM)
You're so right: Customers know. Customers know. Customers know. Ask 'em.
Gino Cosme said... (Apr 24, 2008 2:48:23 PM)
I couldn't agree with you more. Often companies are too scared to open up to their customers however by doing so they're not only positioning themselves as relationship-focused, but determined to solve complex problems in an innovative, collaborative manner. This in turn has some many positive benefits from a business operations and communications perspective.
mike ashworth said... (Apr 26, 2008 5:31:02 PM)
Hi Andy, Fantastic stuff.
I am a firm believer that "data trumps instinct" when it comes to finding out how to improve your products / brand.
What Dell have done will be seen by many other Companies as foolish, actively soliciting commetns that may not be positive, however what these other Companies don't get is that when a Customer is engaged in this way it creates a more meaningful relationship with the Brand / Product. And that is worth far more than advertising can ever buy!
Mike Ashworth
Business Development
Brighton and Hove, Sussex, UK
olivier blanchard said... (May 2, 2008 12:28:31 AM)
I keep saying it and hearing it, but somehow it always seems like a revelation every time I stumble on a post like this.
Genius is usually this simple and obvious.