Since writing the last post I’ve been reflecting further on
how it is that brands, and the marketing teams behind them, can become “blind”
to what’s really important to the customer. Over the years I’ve seen countless
examples of product design, processes and marketing communications where it is
all too apparent that the customer perspective has been lost along the way.
My favourite example is from the insurance industry. I had
been asked to present to a financial services conference as a favour – my role was
to be the “outside observer” – to provide them with a marketer’s perspective on
their industry. As luck would have it, just as I was beginning to wonder what I
was going to say, it came time to renew my own house insurance. What an eye-opener. The conversation went something
like this:
Me: “last year you quoted me about £400 for house insurance.
How much for this year?
Hapless insurance salesman: “that would be £1200, sir”
Me: “what?? Nothing has happened this year that has led to
me claiming on my insurance – why on earth would you think you can triple my
premium?”
HIS: “ah, well, last year we also quoted you £1200 but you
then got a competitive quote for £400 which we price-matched. Do you have a
competitive quote this time around?”
Me (seeing where this is going but curious to see how badly
this process is designed): “why no, I don’t, but we both know I can go and get
one, so why not just give me your best quote now and save us all some time?”
HIS: “I’m sorry, I can’t do that – you need to call around
our competitors and get another quote, and then call me back so I can match it”
Me: “so what you are telling me is that I have to go and get
a better quote from your competitor. If I do that, what incentive have I got to
ring you back at all?”
HIS: “err”
You can see where the story ends – and yes, I do now have my
house insured with someone else.
My message to the financial services conference was simple.
An industry insider, reading that account, is bristling to respond. “Ah”,
they’ll say, “what you don’t understand is the industry economics – let me
explain it to you”.
Well, no, don’t.
Because whatever the industry economics, any customer process designed
like the one above is just plain wrong. It might maximise short term return,
but it does nothing to build loyalty or any kind of long term customer
relationship. The fact that it’s
difficult to break out of that industry model does not make it any less
important to do so.
We are surrounded in our own businesses by examples which,
though maybe less extreme, are just as frustrating to customers. I’ve been
reading the great post on Jeff Ogden’s site on “the curse of knowledge” and I
think that that is at the heart of it. It’s very difficult indeed to see your
business the same way a customer does once you know all the inside details on
how it works. The result is that it is much harder than it looks to genuinely
put the customer first.
I’m going to talk more in coming posts about how to put the
individual customer experience at the heart of what we do as marketers, but for
the time being here’s a handy test to avoid the curse of knowledge. Whenever
you catch yourself or someone in your business, explaining an odd-looking
process or customer experience by saying “well, what you need to understand
is...” – stop them right there – it might just be that they already understand
too much.
