It’s mandatory these days to say you’re customer-centric. Or patient-centric. Or consumer-focused. That you’re REALLY caring about what the consumer says. That you LISTEN. Why is it then, that consumers smile in disbelief, saying “yeah, right...”?

People know that brands are after their €. If brands ‘pretend’ to listen, people are skeptical. The question then becomes : How do you credibly listen?

1. Do we watch’m or try to anticipate?

Consumer goods companies (aka fast-movers, FMCG, CPG) have a long tradition of researching consumer wants & needs on a continuous basis. Product-manufacturers don't always agree : "They'd only ask for faster horses", said Henry Ford, or "People don't know what they want until you show it to them" argued Steve Jobs.

Companies should indeed not stop at what users “tell” them. We should aim for a deep sensing of what underlying needs are. Stop asking for a new specific product feature. Discover hidden desires. And don’t forget to check out your non-users & what's blocking their acquisition.

 2. Prove to me you listen

Do something with I say: innovate. Adapt/fine-tune or disrupt/transform your offer & customer experience to resolve stated/unstated needs. If you wait too long, some tech-savvy start-up will fill the (need) gap. They’ll enter fast with a beta-version protoype, a fluid & easy-to-adopt solution. And since these guys have no core business (ie margin) to lose, they'll do it cheaper too.

3. Digitalisation shifts expectation levels

Today’s customers expect real-time reactivity, BANG-ON relevance & personalization. Gone is the time where companies could one-size-fits-all & mass-market their internal 2-year-R&D-developed product. We went from incremental manufacturing excellence to disruptive user-focus. Be it B2B or B2C, we’ve moved from physical product-industries to solution-streaming start-ups (& sustainable, sharing-type models accelerate the trend).

Ask your teams: how much % of their time are they spending outside of your walls, on listening & echanging? Show customers a prototype, iterate, learn & start again.

4. Only BANG-on insights justify a share

In today’s social world, peer to peer advocacy is the nr 1 medium. What will get Word-of-Mouth (WOM) going? Hit a recognizable string. Base your solution story on strong insights. Is the “Aha-moment” so vivid that it becomes shareable, is it “Wow” enough?  WOW generates WOM.

SO WHAT?

Keep the pulse. Maintain contact with your targets & prospects alike. Contact enables you to detect need gaps early.

Just like any relationship, if you lose close contact you run the risk to have someone else jumping in with a fresher, more adequate solution.

How? It doesn't need to be as extensive/expensive as traditional focus groups. Technology abounds to go faster & modular: from social media fans to online communities or interactive blogs.

Feel that itch to re-start the conversation? Time to dig deeper & dissect those users ('methodically cut up in order to study internal parts') ...