Treasure
Hunt, Part 4
Product and
Service Value
The Problem: Consumers expect the products and services they buy to work exactly as advertised, in a confusion- and error-free manner. However, any product (such as a tool, gadget, or software system) — or even a service (such as an auto repair shop or airline company) — can burden consumers by introducing complex requirements of its own, such as queuing, waiting, installation, setup, programming, learning, maintaining, wrestling with bugs, and troubleshooting. When consumers aren't happy with the quality of their experiences, rather than turning into loyal customers and “raving fans,” the majority will quietly take their money elsewhere, and you may never hear why.
Directions: For each item, select the answer that best describes your organization. At the end of each section, get your clues!
Section A:
| In this section, discover how well your business focuses on designing its offerings and perfecting customer experiences. |
| We design our offerings according to what our development team thinks, not by researching what customers want or need. |
 |
We research our customers’ “burning desires” and how our buyers might try to use our offerings in both usual and unusual circumstances. |
| It’s not our job to simplify our customers’ lives. Our customers need to realize and appreciate what we give them. |
|
We attempt to fine-tune our offerings so they never levy a burden on our customers. If our offerings don’t make life easier, they’re unworthy. |
| We move very fast with development to try to get to market ASAP. Testing products is secondary to beating our competitors. |
|
We design and evaluate our offerings by first combining the best possible features, then doing copious usability and functional testing. |
| Customer experiences don’t dictate what we do or how we do it. We focus on production and delivery. |
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We strive to make customer encounters with our offerings unfailingly consistent, pleasant, and deserving of praise. |
Clues: Do the sentiments on the left or the right seem more familiar, based on what happens in your business? If you selected the left, your business may be missing numerous chances to increase its long-term profitability.
Section B:
Next, ask yourself...What happens in your environment? Think about how your company identifies its customers’ desires in order to design customer experiences.
| 1. |
Do you anticipate how buyers might try to use your offerings, especially under exceptional conditions? If your product fails in a time-critical, remote situation, can the customer quickly and safely recover? |
| 2. |
Do you regularly evaluate how easy your offerings are to use? Do you study design alternatives to refine the features and functions? Do you conduct usability and other tests during the development cycle? |
| 3. |
Do you assess whether your offerings do what you intended? Do you continually compare your offerings against their requirements? Can you verify that they function exactly the way they’re supposed to? |
| 4. |
Have you removed all annoying busywork from your offerings? Can your customers count on being supremely helped — not stymied by what’s needed to install, set up, learn, access, or use your offerings? |
| 5. | Do your offerings yield highly positive, consistent experiences? Are your customers’ interactions so pleasant and gratifying that they can’t stop recommending your offerings to everyone they know? |
Clues: If you answered “yes” to each, your business is taking advantage of many opportunities to build unparalleled customer loyalty through offering stellar products and services!
Congratulations!
You've completed the last part of the Treasure Hunt! I hope your discoveries were insightful, and that you now have some valuable clues for increasing prosperity in your organization. Return to the Treasure Hunt page to claim your free gift!
Click this link to return to the Treasure Hunt page.
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