Innovating Around Your Customers’ Needs?

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Every company likes to think that it is customer-centric. However, most of them are primarily product and/or service-centric first, focussing on product offerings instead of viewing from a customer point of view. Let us discuss how companies can become more customer-centric by thinking up innovative ideas putting the customer first Truly understand what the customer needs. Customers often do not describe the problem they have and how they would like it solved. Hence it becomes critical to dig deep to understand the root cause of customer's difficulty. Let us discuss look at a typical example. Rivigo, a truck driver hiring company is the result of understanding customer needs. E-commerce is booming in India but there is a severe constraint on the truck driver availability. Probing further it was found that even though there is a huge demand for truck divers very few men were signing on as a truck driver. Analysing further it was seen that truck drivers have a stigma attached to their profession. They travel long distances, are away from their families for a long time, and hence get addicted to bad habits like drinking, gambling, drugs and womanising. Hence they are treated lower than outcastes in India and very few families were willing to send their members to take up this profession. Once the root cause was known the problem found its solution. Rivigo hired drivers to work 4 hours at a stretch as a relay service ie., go from point A to B 4 hours away, drop the vehicle and take the return truck from B to A thereby reaching home every day like any office goer. This had twin benefits - the driver is back home at the end of the day and for the fleet owner, the truck can be run 20 hours a day against the earlier 12-14 hours. Identify pain points In a typical supermarket, many retailers are investing in technology to understand the customer better and track their journey through the stores as they do their purchases. What exactly do they do with the massive data collected is a question waiting for an answer. Instead of following what everyone does, it would serve the business better if they address specific pain points of customers to make their visit to the shop more fruitful. A typical customer often does not find what he wants in the store. If they are provided with a mini-terminal at various points inside wherein they can key in their requirement and are directed to the appropriate location, it would help their shopping experience tremendously. So also the long queue at the checkout stores, where he is made to wait to part with his money. A well-designed self-payment system to eliminate his waiting time would again help the customer have a satisfying shopping experience. Look beyond the product Every company is mapping the customers shopping journey and this starts and stops with his product. They do not look beyond this and miss out many important pointers in understanding the customer's motivation and opportunities to add value. Companies should ake efforts to understand the complete journey and provide the user with a single stop solution to the user. DBS bank developed an app for a mortgage. They found that the reason why the customer is looking for a mortgage when he is buying/ leasing home. So they bundle a home search app from available public sources and offered an integrated solution. So the user visits a suburb, scans a typical residence he is interested in, is given all the information about it including the last rates and then he finalises his mortgage with the bank. This enables DBS to gain market share and generate more leads. To become truly customer-centric companies have to look beyond their products or services and try and understand the basic problem he is trying to solve. Are You Really Innovating Around Your Customers’ Needs? by Sunil Gupta HBR 2020/10



Every company likes to think that it is customer-centric. However, most of them are primarily product and/or service-centric first, focussing on product offerings instead of viewing from a customer point of view. Let us discuss how companies can become more customer-centric by thinking up innovative ideas putting the customer first


Truly understand what the customer needs.

Customers often do not describe the problem they have and how they would like it solved. Hence it becomes critical to dig deep to understand the root cause of customer's difficulty. Let us discuss look at a typical example.


Rivigo, a truck driver hiring company is the result of understanding customer needs. E-commerce is 

booming in India but there is a severe constraint on the truck driver availability. Probing further it was found that even though there is a huge demand for truck divers very few men were signing on as a truck driver. Analysing further it was seen that truck drivers have a stigma attached to their profession. They travel long distances, are away from their families for a long time, and hence get addicted to bad habits like drinking, gambling, drugs and womanising. Hence they are treated lower than outcastes in India and very few families were willing to send their members to take up this profession. 


Once the root cause was known the problem found its solution. Rivigo hired drivers to work 4 hours at a stretch as a relay service ie., go from point A to B 4 hours away, drop the vehicle and take the return truck from B to A thereby reaching home every day like any office goer. This had twin benefits - the driver is back home at the end of the day and for the fleet owner, the truck can be run 20 hours a day against the earlier 12-14 hours. 


Identify pain points

In a typical supermarket, many retailers are investing in technology to understand the customer better and track their journey through the stores as they do their purchases. What exactly do they do with the massive data collected is a question waiting for an answer. Instead of following what everyone does, it would serve the business better if they address specific pain points of customers to make their visit to the shop more fruitful.


A typical customer often does not find what he wants in the store. If they are provided with a mini-terminal at various points inside wherein they can key in their requirement and are directed to the appropriate location, it would help their shopping experience tremendously. So also the long queue at the checkout stores, where he is made to wait to part with his money. A well-designed self-payment system to eliminate his waiting time would again help the customer have a satisfying shopping experience. 


Look beyond the product

Every company is mapping the customers shopping journey and this starts and stops with his product. They do not look beyond this and miss out many important pointers in understanding the customer's motivation and opportunities to add value.


Companies should ake efforts to understand the complete journey and provide the user with a single stop solution to the user. DBS bank developed an app for a mortgage. They found that the reason why the customer is looking for a mortgage when he is buying/ leasing home. So they bundle a home search app from available public sources and offered an integrated solution. So the user visits a suburb, scans a typical residence he is interested in, is given all the information about it including the last rates and then he finalises his mortgage with the bank. This enables DBS to gain market share and generate more leads.


To become truly customer-centric companies have to look beyond their products or services and try and understand the basic problem he is trying to solve.





Are You Really Innovating Around Your Customers’ Needs?

by Sunil Gupta HBR 2020/10

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