As a marketer, product manager or proposition director you know that focusing on your customer is essential for effective strategies and propositions, and it can supercharge innovation and growth. But how do you manage customer involvement, and how much of it do you actually need?
Levels of customer involvement
The depth of customer involvement that’s right for you will vary depending on your business goals, the nature of your product or service, and, crucially, the resources you have available to set up and manage a customer involvement programme. But as a principle, gathering customer insight and feedback regularly can unlock a range of benefits for a business – as long as it’s shared effectively and acted on. Done right, it can help you enhance your product offering, improve your service quality and identify the changing trends that will shape your strategy.
Customer Involvement – Light
At the lighter end of the customer involvement spectrum, collecting feedback through periodic customer surveys provides key insights and data on customer preferences and satisfaction, without overwhelming them or requiring an extensive and resource-heavy engagement programme. It’s worth taking time to plan surveys carefully though – a well-chosen set of questions can provide useful data on what customers really value and why, and how well you (and your competitors) are currently meeting their needs.
Customer Involvement – Medium
With a little more resource, involving customers in in focus groups a few times a year can provide much richer insight into their attitudes and perceptions. Targeted customer interviews allow you to delve deeper into individual experiences for a more nuanced exploration of key topics. At Blue Feathers, we’ve found in multiple client projects that the nuggets of insight that emerge here are often the catalyst for new proposition ideas that can then be tested fully in quantitative research.
Some organisations also establish panels of loyal customers who provide ongoing feedback and take part in discussions about new product and service developments. Taking this a step further, involving customers in beta testing of new products and services can help identify any issues and gather suggestions for improvements before a full launch.
Customer Involvement – Maxi
At the highest end of the involvement spectrum, idea crowdsourcing, where organisations provide platforms for customers to share their ideas, can foster loyalty and generate compelling new propositions. LEGO is a great example of this approach – customers can upload their suggestions for new sets to the LEGO Ideas site, and then fans vote for the ones they want to see made into official sets. This has led to multiple new product launches over the last few years. And co-creation projects, where customers actively participate in the development of new propositions, can lead to highly innovative and customer-centric solutions. At Blue Feathers, we have extensive experience of proposition development sprints that bring together colleagues, customers and external experts, and we love the energy that customers bring to co-creation.
At the strategic level, customer advisory boards can provide valuable strategic insights and help to shape the direction of the business beyond specific propositions. Adobe uses this method, bringing together key customers at summit events to help shape its approach on strategic topics including digital commerce and the future of content personalisation.
Some challenges to be aware of
Customer involvement in strategy and proposition development is not without its challenges. Here are a few things you should keep in mind when planning your approach:
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Don’t over-survey
Over-surveying, with too many requests for feedback and input, can lead to customer fatigue. Plan customer engagement activities carefully, limiting the frequency of requests and aiming to engage customers only on the topics most personally relevant to them – customers need to feel that they are benefiting from the interaction too, not just the organisation.
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Prepare for diverse opinions
It’s likely that customers will have a range of diverse opinions, and it can be difficult to reconcile and implement conflicting suggestions. Here it can really pay to develop some criteria in advance for prioritising feedback, based on factors including alignment to your overall strategy, feasibility and viability, and the specific customer segments that are most important to you.
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Keep your samples and methodologies broad
That said, there’s a risk of bias if you gather feedback only from a small, non-representative sample of customers – they can skew your understanding of the needs of your broader customer base, so it’s important to consider a diverse range of respondents and methods for gathering input.
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Make sure you stay in the driving seat
While customer involvement can be really helpful to inform new propositions or shape strategy, you need to remember that you’re in the driving seat. Relying too heavily on involvement from customers can lead to scope creep and the risk of diluting or losing sight of your original objectives. Set out some clear goals for customer involvement at the start and review the scope of your engagement activity regularly to make sure it’s still aligned with your business priorities.
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Manage customer expectations
Customers may expect immediate changes based on their feedback, especially if they’re taking part in activities at the more involved end of the spectrum – if they’re giving up their time and energy to help you, they understandably want to see some results. Managing expectations is key, with upfront, transparent communication about how customer input will be used and a timeline for any changes.
Conclusion
Customer involvement is a powerful tool for shaping strategy and propositions. By balancing and managing this involvement, you can drive innovation, enhance customer satisfaction, and build stronger relationships with your customer base – as long as you plan for some of the challenges it can bring.
What tips do you have for working with customers?
Would you like to discuss how you could bring customers into strategy and proposition development? Reach out to susie@bluefeathers.co.uk or call her on +44 (0) 7825 115 793.
Author: Guy Chapman
Guy is a senior brand strategist who specialises in proposition development, product management and business development. He has a strong background in education, having worked for the British Council and Cambridge University Press and Assessment. Prior to this, Guy worked at an advertising agency where his clients included MasterCard, Canon and Matalan. MBA-qualified, Guy has strong facilitation and communication skills, and is adept at distilling a wide range of data and information into the essential insights that lead to effective strategy.