People Power
March 11th, 2009 by chris_robsonWhy is it that so many companies believe that they are listening to their customers when they do market research? Most market research is such a blunt instrument that captures a static view of what customer wants, when actually that process is so dynamic.
We notice it all the time on www.youwish.com. Someone wants a particular product or service at one moment. They ask for it. A business replies. But the prospective customer then sits on their hands for a while and the business wonders what is going on. Then perhaps weeks later the customer decides to respond to the business and a transaction takes place. It is uncontrollable. It goes at “people speed” not on some predictable path.
Businesses need to find ways to engage their customers much more openly and often to see how their behaviour actually manifests what they want, rather than just what they say one day.
Co-creation is part of the answer but even that is often a rather hothoused NPD environment rather than a totally open dialogue. The real answer is in genuinely harnessing “people power” and in letting the conversations emerge around your products and services and people’s needs. To do this, businesses need to construct a natural and value adding channel which their prospective customers can engage with. McDonalds provides a good example of how to do this with their “make up your mind” initiative, but there many many more opportunities that companies have not started leveraging. An obvious place to start is with problem solving communities that add value to the business and to the customer and which do harness People Power. More on that in due course.