Nobody loves your product
The kind of love that businesses need to grow fast
Okay, that’s a bit too harsh but now that I have your attention…
Loving’s such a beautiful thing as the Bee Gees sang, it makes us feel warm and fuzzy, and when we create new products and services for our company or our start-up; it’s a moment of love. Everybody is familiar with that moment bliss you get when you’ve thought of something new and ingenious, you’re in love, however, once we set it out into the world, we often hit a wall. We find out that people aren’t buying what we’ve made, but we were so sure that it would be the next best thing and that it’s so valuable to people.
When we get our product or service out there, we’re so in love with our “baby” that we fail to see it with fresh eyes and figure out what’s not working. We get frustrated and we keep beating a dead horse by trying to inject more resources into marketing; more ads, more videos, more promotions. Even google did it with the google glasses, they kept trying but nobody wanted it, so google eventually killed it; it happens to the best as well. We keep forcing the issue cause we want customers to see the product and what it could do; we even try to become viral. The truth is unless people love what you’re offering, it’s not going to be long term, so our goal should be to create products and services that people fall in love with. The question now is how do we earn the love of our customers through our offerings?
To have love, it’s best to define what it means to have love, so that’s what we’ll do.
Understanding
“the knowledge and ability to judge a particular situation or subject”
Besides the usual “understanding of our customers”, understanding in the context of our product or service also means understanding what our core value is to which customers and why it’s valuable to them. Not knowing your product’s core value means that you don’t know what you’re selling and you don’t know what to build on. At this point, you can’t push for growth yet because you’re likely to end up with false positives or worse, market rejection.
As your users organically grow and as you iterate on your product, you’ll find out what your users love the most about your offering and why they love it, this is where your core value lies. If you can’t find the core value, it means that you need to make more development, but do keep in mind that the value that you would find would not necessarily be what you created it for. We can’t force what we think our customers would love, we let them tell us through data. When we find that value, we go deep on it and build our offering and our product around that.
Another form of understanding is understanding of the problem that your business is solving. When we’re solving big and complex problems, we tend to be focused on the solution for the one problem in the stack of problems that sometimes we forget about other things above the funnel, so we end up in the wrong market or position. A classic example would be selling a comb to a bald person when you should be selling to people with hair or selling hair grower to those bald people. What we should do is take a look at the big picture and frame the problems, this lets us see other gaps and opportunities to work on so we could bridge our customers and our solutions together.
Complete understanding of our own product or service, as well as the problem that we’re trying to capitalize on, pays really well. We get to be lean in terms of our resources because we’re not forcing to sell a dud to the wrong people, we also find out where we should focus our development efforts to save opportunity costs, and ultimately, provide something that people love.
Affection
“a gentle feeling of fondness or liking”
In products and services, we need to create experiences that are useful, usable, and delightful, so our customers would develop affection towards us. These traits should be present throughout the whole customer experience as they interact with our business and should be a priority because it increases our value and competitive advantage. If we don’t offer something that has a purpose, functions properly, and pleasing, our customers would completely ignore us or even hate us. A good example of this is comparing the experience of hotels, the best and memorable ones are the ones that provide us with amenities that we need and want like car services and a great pool while pampering us throughout our stay. This leaves a lasting impression with the customers, so they give us good reviews and recommend us to their friends.
Another thing that we should keep in mind about products and services, especially digital ones, is that our customers or users are lazy (marshmallow, anyone?), especially at the beginning when they have no investment in our offering whatsoever. It’s best to reduce friction so they could dive right in and find out our product’s value by making it as smooth and seamless as possible by fine-tuning the experience and empowering them to achieve their goals by making tasks easier to achieve.
Striving for our customer’s affection is great for Word of Mouth, it’s free and effective. A customer that loved your product would recommend it to another friend, and so on, eventually resulting in exponential growth for your business. However, when we fail to provide usable, useful, and delightful products, Word of Mouth could stop growth just as fast.
Communication
“the act of conveying meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic rules”
Our customers won’t love us unless we communicate with them in a way that they understand, so how do we do this? A great thing to keep in mind is our customers are vain and selfish, if they couldn’t comprehend your value, they won’t give you a dime. If they don’t find it valuable, they’ll drop you.
When we reach out to our customers through our brand, we make the mistake of talking about ourselves or what we’re offering. Honestly, that feels good, you feel like you’re putting your brand out there and they know who you are but the truth is, your customers would only listen when you talk about them and what they could be, should they choose you. They want to know what’s in it for them, so flirt a bit, and flatter them.
Focusing on one core value is also very important when communicating with our customers. Yes, your product has a ton of features, but your customers won’t remember your whole menu, they’ll always ask for the bestseller; what do people usually get? What do people come here for? You’re known for being the best for one thing, and they want that; this makes selling a whole lot easier as well. Selling on a list of features is best for old products like refrigerators, smartphones, and the like because the value is already established, with new products and services, but it’s not really effective for introducing innovation.
To make our customers listen, we need to focus on one core value that our products would provide them and we should talk about that value in their shoes. Remember, people are buying a future version of themselves, so they want to see what life is like with your business.
In products and services, it’s important to keep in mind that we’re striving for love from our customers and as we build different offerings, remember that they are lazy, vain, and selfish (Thanks, Scott Belsky). When we’re striving for love, we’re trying to court them, so we should put our best foot forward, treat them right, enable them, hold the door for them, not make them think, and even flirt a bit. We also need to understand our best quality, our value, and go deep on it, then communicate it to them in a way that catches their attention and resonates with them, so that they could visualize a better version of themselves when they choose us.
When we’re pressured to grow, either from investors or revenue targets from the company, spending on marketing will be very tempting, but no amount of marketing could make users love a substandard product or service that they don’t understand. So it’s best to take a step back and think strategically, take a look at the product or service in terms of value, experience, and how we’re selling the value to our customers.
P.S. Don’t fall in love with your idea.
Want to build products and services that customers love?
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