Why you should speak to your customers everyday

I work for Fibre, a real estate company in Nigeria. Our mission is to make living simple for young professionals across the country. We eliminate the barriers to living in the city, by making it possible for young professionals to find homes easily, pay for them conveniently, choose flexible durations and in some cases share these living spaces with other like minded people, to cut down on costs.

Over the 18 months that we have been in operation, we’ve helped over 100 people find homes and we’ve championed monthly payments in Lagos “Live in Lagos, Pay monthly.” As far as we were concerned, we were serving our customers in the way they wanted and it was only a question of how to serve more people.

However, a few months ago, we made a deliberate effort engage with current and prospective customers to find out what they thought the real “problem” was and whether our solutions are the best at solving them. What we learned— to put it bluntly — was, the entire process of renting in Lagos doesn’t work. Not only do you pay multiple years upfront, there are a slew of other problems including; inaccurate depictions of property, time wasted on pointless viewings, high rent prices, different forms of discrimination etc. While we had been involved in solving some these problems, we didn’t treat them as priority and emphasised only one part of our offering Live in Lagos, Pay monthly. From these sessions we essentially learnt that we were neglecting the desires of our customers. They were telling us “these reasons are all the reasons we need Fibre.”

One piece of advice I have for anyone starting/running any business is; speak to at least one customer everyday. Yes EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Another interesting thing we learnt is that, while monthly payments is great for most people, some others will rather pay in other ways; especially in a country like Nigeria, where there is little security from financial shocks. We witnessed potential members debate passionately about the merits and demerits of monthly payments. We took the feedback and realised the market as a whole was not one size fits all. Different people within our target market want to pay in different ways. They want flexibility. Some people want to pay monthly, some yearly, some four times a year; and we asked ourselves, what is stopping us from providing this flexibility?

Usually, the answer to that question is wrapped in a common misconception about building products. Most times, we come up with ideas to solve problems and we want to be recognised as the innovators and inventors of these grand products that are a direct result of our ideas. So when we see customer behaviour that challenges parts or the whole of our ideas we are hesitant to change it, because we feel ownership of the idea or design. However, I’ve learned that true innovation is following existing user behaviour and making the process more efficient by iterating — getting feedback — and iterating again.

After these sessions and further conversations with our current customers we realised that our entire product development should be governed by our customers’ needs and the only way to find out these needs is by creating a strong feedback loop. Doing this has helped us to prioritise our product offerings and commence research on other areas where we can provide long term value for our customers.

To usher this new thinking we have broken down our offering into three parts:

• Finding homes: We will continue to add tools that make house hunting simple. From providing accurate pictures and descriptions of homes, to making the process of scheduling a viewing and booking homes more seamless. Our aim is to be the easiest way for you to find your next home.
• Flexible Payment Options: We are still the biggest champions and advocates for monthly payments in Nigeria. We are working with everyone, from landlords to policymakers to make this a reality and we will keep pushing until it is at least a choice for everyone. However, we have also added flexibility to the payment options to all homes on our platform. You can pay in the way that is most convenient for you.
• Shared Housing: We are making it easy for young professionals to share homes, which is one way to make living more affordable. If you consider renting and then furnishing a 1 bedroom, you often times will be paying up to 1.6X what it costs to live in our shared house options.

Living Made Simple

Fibre is not just about property listings, we are about working to solve the problems associated with living in most cities around Africa. Our job is to make your life simpler, easier and more convenient. It is a collaborative journey between us and all our customers to create a the future of living in African cities.

From the numerous conversation with customers, we’ve realised that they want solutions which make their living situations the least of their worries. ‘Living made simple’ means more time to build your career, more time for friends and family. It means, making your home a respite from the stress of Lagos life. It means convenience in paying for your home and living solutions that consider you first.

My major realisation, is that to solve real problems, you must view your product development as a collaborative effort between you and your customers. Yes, data analytics may help you infer customer behaviour but nothing matches interacting with a customer as personally as possible. It may sound daunting, but talk to a customer everyday. Even if its a 15 minute call or email thread. Find out how they think about your product, why is it useful to them, the areas they will like to see improvements etc. You may find that they will often teach you things about your product that you never considered.

To find out more about Fibre, our products and our journey in general you can reach me at demi@fibre.ng