Do Your Customers Really Know What They Want?

by Glenn Fisher

Aidan Radnedge editorializes on the front of the London Metro: "The worst snowfall in almost two decades..."

I wonder if Aidan considered the opinion of the school children who escaped for the day and got to build snowmen in the street?

Or those who couldn’t make it into work and got to warm themselves up with a pint in the local?

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I don’t mean to pick on Mr Radnedge but reading that subjective line about it being the ‘worst’ snow and not the ‘heaviest’ chimed with something Michael Masterson was discussing recently...

Do you really know what you want?

Michael was making a point that often people don’t actually know what they want.

I’m sure a lot of people thought they wanted snow only to realise how disruptive it can be.

Is it the same with your customers? Do they really know what they want?

Michael isn’t sure they do: "when asked what ‘they want’, most people will tell you what they think they want. Or they might say what they think will impress you. Rarely will they tell you what they will actually buy."

He goes on to suggest there are two types of information you can get from asking your customers for information: "demographic information, like age and gender and so on" and "information about the kind of products and services they want from you."

I agree with Michael when he suggests "demographic information is only marginally useful". Unless your product or service is specific to a very niche market (15-20 year old males who enjoy scuba diving and badminton) demographic information isn’t going to give you an edge on much anything.

But I don’t entirely agree with him on his second point...

Two reasons for asking what your customers want

Michael argues that "the information you get from your customers about the sort of products and services they want can be misleading. Yes, they'll tell you what they want or like. But it will be what they want to believe they want or like. Not what they really do."

I agree that information customers give you about what they want can be misleading, but I don’t think it should be dismissed...

In my opinion Michael is only half right when he says "When it comes to understanding your customers' buying habits, there is only one way to do it. You have to present different products and offers to them. Then you see which ones get better results. That is the only way to know for sure."

I don’t think this is the ONLY way to understand your customers’ buying habits and I don’t think you should not ask what your customers want.

For two reasons:

First, regardless of how misleading the information your customers give you is, the mere act of asking your customers - generating a dialogue with them - has a positive effect on your relationship with them.

You’ll be perceived as being more sympathetic to the customers’ needs. Your customers will value the fact that you’re interested in providing them with what they want.

I agree with Michael that you should still present your customers with different products and offers but you should do this in conjunction with the products and offers people think they want.

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Sometimes what we think we want IS what we want - you don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to ask customers what they want and then give them exactly that. If you do that, in future, customers will be much more willing to try something they didn’t think they wanted because you’ve evidenced you know the kind of thing they think they want.

Secondly, I think when you’re starting out it is good to ask your customers what they want for the simple fact that you might not have anything to go on otherwise.

When you find out what your customers ‘think’ they want, you can start coming up with other ideas of what you think they actually want.

But can you see what’s happening here? In either case it’s you or your customers ‘thinking’ - it’s really just one assumption against the other.

I recently spoke about what I call ‘The Curse of Assumption’ (Is Your Business Suffering From 'The Curse of Assumption'?) - how you shouldn’t ever assume that your customers have the same knowledge as you.

It’s the same here - you should never assume what your customers ‘think’ they want is what they want. But at the same time you should never assume what you ‘think’ they want is what they want.

Michael is right: "You have to present different products and offers to them. Then you see which ones get better results. That is the only way to know for sure."

But working out which products and offers you present them should include both products and offers they think they want and products and offers you think they want.