Delight Your Customers Every Step of the Way with Value
Do you value your customers? Do you know how important they are to your business? Yes, they help pay the bills, but what else to they provide? To my business, customers are some of the most important people in our lives. They’re the reason we exist and continue to do the great things we love doing. As entrepreneurs our goal is to delight our customers as we help solve their problems.
It’s important to understand, delighting your customer IS NOT just solving their problems. Anyone can build a product to solve a problem but not any entrepreneur can build a company that delights. Delivering delight and customer happiness is a core value. Don’t believe me? Take a read into Tony Hsieh’s book called “Delivering Happiness.” The CEO of Zappos teaches how they do it, and are one of the best at it.
But don’t worry, you don’t have to be the size Zappos to delight your customers. The best part is, no matter where you are in your company, you can delight your customers every step of the way. Throughout this post, I’ll outline the key times and tips you can use to have a huge impact delighting your customers every step of the process.
Customer Development
Every business has to earn their first interested customers. They’re the ones who help build and refine your minimum viable product (MVP). It’s at this phase of customer development where you build out your framework of delighting your customers. You’ll build a relationship with them and understand what problem you’re solving for them. Be honest and transparent with your intentions through communications with them. The information they’re providing you is paramount to your success, don’t take it for granted.
Tip: When doing customer interviews, don’t give gift cards. You’ll be subconsciously putting a monetary value on their time. Try writing a hand written thank you note instead.
Minimum Viable Product
You’ve figured out what their problem is, now it’s time to build something that of value. This isn’t a time to forget about your customers. Your first version of your product is finished and they’ve used it. Keep the feedback loop going. This will prove to your customers that your thoughts remain about them first, and how you can bring more value to them.
The image above outlines how you can do an awesome job at this, and how you can totally botch it. In the top half, you just took your insights from your initial interviews and built something they hated, and then assumed you know what was next. In the bottom, your customers are intimately involved in the development of the product. You keep adding value a little bit at a time until they’re unbelievably happy. You know why? Because you’re adding the value that the customer told you he or she NEEDED.
Tip: Ask the right questions. Don’t lead your customers to preconceived notions you may already have. Make comments like “tell me more,” and ask “why” to help lead them to actionable insights for your team. Make hypotheses about what they want based on previous data, and then validate it with them. Let them lead you to the promised land.
Post Launch
People are using your product, hooray! But the work isn’t done here. You now have developed hundreds of touch points where you can continue to delight your customers. While you’re still refining your product, or building a new one, you should include your customers in that development. Develop your own version of a feedback loop.
You’ll be able to get an unbelievable amount of data out of a feedback loop. On a project I was working on, we were developing a new product and uncovered an amazing opportunity. Through our feedback loop we gained insight into some poor customer service practices. Our customers told us it needed to be more personal and less scripted.
Tip: You can find golden insights in every customer conversation. Pay attention to not only what you do poorly, but what you do well. You’ll be able to build off your strengths and also improve on your weaknesses at the same time.
The moral of the story is to involve your customers in every decision you make. They should be at the forefront of your thought process all the time, and you’ll delight them by default. If delighting your customers gets built into the DNA of your company, you’ll build long lasting relationships that will help fuel your company into the future. How well you understand your customers will define how successful your organization is today and in the future.
