Being too customer centric means being too product centric
Can we become too “customer” centric? The closer we get to a problem the harder it is to see the bigger picture. The closer we get to our “customers” the more product centric we become.
A “customer” is essentially just a wallet with a human attached to it (since the sole motivation of a “customer” is to complete a purchase). And being too focused on the process of purchasing we can miss entirely what motivates people to action and what they value turning them into customers in the first place.
By seeing people as customers of mattresses instead of light sleepers we build models portraying them as driven to own mattresses, while I would wager getting a good night sleep is much more important.
By seeing physicians as customers instead of treaters we are easily swayed to think they focus more on medical products than caring for patients.
Seeing people as customers instead of what motivates them we use language that limits how we think and reduce our own ability to imagine what’s possible.
How do we improve what’s possible for someone whose sole motivation is to acquire a product? We make it easier to buy or improve the product benefits.
But nobody ever bought a product just because someone a was selling it and most often the product is just an obstacle between what people want and how to get there (nobody needs a bike, but use it for transportation .. the goal is to get from A to B, not to sit on the bike and sweat for 15 minutes).
The closer we get to our customers the harder it is to imagine what they need. We have to step back from the process of purchasing and instead ask: what are they trying to achieve that leads them to our product in the first place?
Stop thinking that “customers” buy products and instead ask: “What situations buy products?” or “which needs buy products?”.
When we’ve tested this we found that colleagues have plenty of answers and assumptions .. we just never ask the question because we’ve become so myopically focused on producing “customers”, instead of improving something for other people or organizations (selling something = helping someone).
A small change in language has an outsized effect: instantly the questions will change, then the need for new answers, then the data needed to get them, leading to new insights and ideas about how to create value and business impact.
Being too customer centric means being too product centric. Stop talking about “customers”, take a step back and find in the bigger picture.
