Making your customer an important part of the new product design team

I admire customer fanatics, especially those who listen to the customers.  I worked with a client who owned a manufacturing business that sold their products direct to the consumer and so he also ran a large toll-free call center. 

He impressed upon his telemarketers the importance of listening to the customer and writing down comments they heard — both good and bad.  He would collect all of the comments at the end of each business day and publish them to everyone’s desk the next morning. 

He paid the telemarketers a spiff if they recorded a product suggestion and a larger spiff if the product suggestion appeared in the company’s catalog.  The telemarketers were responsible for nearly half of the company’s new products, which is an unusually high number, especially given the investment most companies make in their own product design teams.  The telemarketers were extremely influential because they listened carefully to the customer and found an effective way to share this valuable information with everyone.

He did the same thing with complaints and comments about the product, or the way in which the product was presented in their catalog.  Most customers don’t say anything when they are annoyed.  They suffer in silence and leave without saying good-bye.  Mostly because they think corporate America doesn’t listen to them.  This company enjoyed product multi-purchase rates that were the envy of the industry.

I read those reports religiously every morning when I worked for this particular client.  They were an incredible insight into marketing to the customer.  Since that time I have spoken with hundreds of businesses and organizations and I always ask if they have such a report I can read.  I have received three thus far.  Sadly, very few companies have such a report or listen so intently to their customers.  Imagine the money they could save on new product design.  Or, the additional money that can fall to the bottom line from a customer-centric focus.  And all from a report that costs pennies a day to compile.