5 Myths of Customer Centricity

Customer/consumer centricity misunderstood: 5 myths

➀ End customers can give limited to no feedback on path-breaking innovation

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”

– Henry Ford

📌 It’s not about if you should engage the customers but what you ask and how you engage them. Learn about exploratory research, design thinking, and prototype thinking. If you still believe this then you have a strong need to push your ideas to the larger organization without being challenged ☀ 

➁ We should base our decision on exactly what the customer says

📌 Take customer feedback as a guiding light but please layer it with sound business judgement and take bold risks but test the key parameters with the customers. You are paid for your expertise as well ☀ 

➂ We want to design the product 5 years out so let’s ask people who will age into our product now

📌 No! People change as they age. Research the current and young consumers and layer current consumer feedback with key sticky generational trends ☀ 

➃ Customer centricity is only about the end customer. What do sales know? What do dealers know?

📌 Triangulate your research with any stakeholder who has customer interactions. There are astute sales persons, dealers, industry experts, academicians, technocrats, value chain partners who have very deep insights ☀ 

➄ Listen only to the customer

📌 Observe as well as listen. Ask clarifying questions. 5 whys? Do rigorous analysis. A good market researcher is like a trained psychiatrist who can delve deep into the customer’s psychological iceberg ☀