The Broadhurst Report:
Listening to the Customer
By Guy Broadhurst
I've been thinking lately about how companies develop products. Too often it seems, products are developed because they seem like a good idea at the time. But they arrive in the marketplace without a clear idea of how they will be used or if they fill an actual need. Somehow, those products usually don't do so well.
Consider the cupholder
Other times they are developed to meet the real-world needs of customers--and those tend to do much better. Auto manufacturers are a great example because they look for very specific input from their target audience. Consider how minivans have gone from being fairly basic boxes on four wheels to being paragons of packaging and storage efficiency. Customers wanted lighter seats for easy removal, additional storage, automatic doors, and safety. So that's what the best of the current crop of vans deliver. Or consider the lowly cupholder. While as essential as steering wheels to American drivers, drinking a beverage in a moving car is verboten to European automakers, especially the German firms that make most of the European models sold in the States. But as they listened to what American customers wanted, they began adding them to their vehicles, lest they lose more sales to Japan, Inc. In fact, BMW actually uses cupholders as a focal point in TV ads for their latest SUV.
I'm thinking about this after spending a week last month at Océ's Open House, the annual trade fair held at the Océ factory in Poing, outside of Munich, Germany. This event, now 14 years old, has come to be the largest yearly digital print trade show in Europe, surpassed only by Drupa and IPEX (on the years those take place). Now, you'd think an event at the factory would be all about Océ. But while the print engines all wear Océ badges, this event is really a showcase of how the company and its partners together deliver a huge range of document production solutions.
For example there were over 100 finishing systems relying on technology from many different vendors. Each was configured to work with specific Océ print engines, ranging from walk-up copier/printers for the office to high-end newspaper and book production systems. My responsibilities are for the production-class equipment, yet I'm always surprised by the range of choices being shown for all types of print engines. With so many finishing options coming from vendors Océ has partnered with, it is clear that all involved are singing from the same hymnal and working closely to bring the various systems to market.
Listening to customers
Doing so has meant a concerted effort to listen to customers and develop systems that meet those needs. Customers who had provided their input could see their "wish list" come to life with intuitive operator interfaces, automatic paper loading, ease of toner replenishment, and improved maintenance schedules. All these are customer centric, driven by their ideas and suggestions, not only to Océ, but also to our partners.
Open House not only shows customers that we've have listened to their ideas, but also gives them insights into how the company thinks. In Poing, for example, they have access to Océ technicians, senior management, and have opportunities to learn about the company's strategic plans. This is a key part of how Océ and its partners show their commitment to customers. We want to know what we can do better, where to make needed changes, strive to understand their needs and develop products that reflect those requirements.
Listening takes place in other venues as well. Learning from our customers is an ongoing process that includes the input we get through our field organization, and also in more detail when they bring their applications and operations people to our U.S. headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida. There we learn more about what we can do to make our equipment and software a better fit in their businesses and look for ways to integrate their input into our technology.
Listening drives a deeper understanding of customer needs and provides the knowledge we need to incorporate requests from different types of customers into our products and services. It helps ensure our offerings are not rolled out to fill a perceived niche in a given market, but fill real needs across many vertical lines of products from books to statements to direct mail--and back.