Visiting the Real World

Unless you visit the real world of your customers, you have little or no idea if your data, or map, is correct and complete.  This is especially true if your customers are not like you.  Without visiting your customers you have little appreciation for the richness, the variety and the context of their world and their lives.  You can’t feel their emotions and empathise with them.  You will find it difficult to care.

So let’s get practical.  How are you supposed to visit the real world of your customers?

1.    First of all, as far as possible, be a consumer of your own products. 

       I acknowledge that this is not always possible, for example …

       … I have a long-standing niggle with the packaging on Lil-lets tampons and let’s face it, this is not a product that you want to be fiddling with to open. Even if the product manager is male, they could have easily realized this irritation by attempting to open the product. I can only speculate on whether this has contributed to the company’s book value of £-26M.   

2.    Watch how people shop for your products or services online and offline and go and buy your product yourself.  See what the process is like.  Do the research and find the highlights and pain points in the consumer journey. 

3.    Hang out where your customers hang out.  Watch what they do and get talking.  If that’s too scary, call up your market research agency and ask them to pre-recruit willing participants.  Or give me a call and I will come with you.  At the very least spend time hanging out in social media. 

4.    Best of all, with the support of your research agency, visit your customers in their homes or any environment where your products or services are consumed.  Seeing them in their context will give you insight that you will never get through the one-way mirror of a viewing facility.  

5.    Invite your customers into your company. Aim to understand their lives and what is important to them, not just what they think of your stuff. 

Let them tell you their story.  Hear it properly with your heart and mind and go back to your work with real care for your customers and renewed passion in what you can do for them.