Why complaints are an innovative financial service provider’s best friend

Lois Eva Adongo
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

“Out of clutter, find simplicity.”

“From discord, find harmony.”

We all tend to fear customer complaints. And we’d certainly rather not even have a customer service line. And yet, customer complaints, really are a low-hanging quintessential road map for those FSPs who seek opportunity to innovate quickly.

Einstein’s three lines of advise above are truer today than when he first uttered them. Complaints, are a Financial Service Provider’s (FSP) best friend.

To stand out as the FSP of choice, you need to create great products and services, AND solve your customers’ pressing needs while you’re at it. Your product offering must be designed around a problem that your target market is struggling with and that you can solve.

And you don’t even have to wait until your customers complain. You can learn from your competitors’ customers. It is an easier and shorter path for being innovative without coming up with an earth-shuttering idea.

In a nutshell here’s what such a method would look like:

  1. Identify a top-selling product: Find a popular financial product or service already being used by your target market and read all their social media interactions to see what people’s complaints are with the product. In theory, if this product or service is top-selling even with flaws, the sky is the limit for the same product with the flaws fixed.
  2. Develop your product: Having analyzed your competitors’ flawed product, develop your own product incorporating the changes your target market was asking for by complaining.
  3. Take your product to market: Easy, right? No. Like any other product, pilot test, get feedback, re-iterate, test again, and so forth. Not all your offerings are going to fly day one, but keep listening to the market and in due course you will find the sweet spot.

If you need any help in conceptualizing, designing, or implementing your fintech or financial service in Kenya, feel free to contact me directly, and we can have a chat about it.

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