Still think you can get away with pushing your product without having done the timelessly cited research into consumers Thats the exact reason why almost half of shoppers abandon even their favourite shops.
At the same time, Ometria research found a staggering 84 per cent of consumers felt bombarded by online retailers, with 46 per cent saying they would stop shopping at specific brands that didnt take their requests to heart.
The research went on to claim that several brands didnt know basic consumer information before targeting them such as whether they were male or female. And almost a fifth of UK shoppers suggested they would like for companies to better understand their approximate budget and provide recommended products and services that were more realistic to their earnings.
That being said, there have been a plethora of past mistakes in this area that bosses can learn from namely that it pays to listen to your consumers.
(1) Blackberry
The company that led the smartphone revolution is now a shadow of its former self and there’s one glaring factor why. Essentially, it believed it knew better about what consumers wanted in terms of smartphones.
More importantly, it failed to adapt with the market and blew it when Verizon asked Blackberry to create a touchscreen to compete against the iPhone. It led Verizon to instead approach Google and Motorola. This reluctance to keep pace was further emphasised when former co-CEO Jim Balsillie quit the companys board after it refused to focus on instant-messaging software, as well as when founder Mike Lazaridis opposed the launch of the touchscreen Z10 to rather work on keyboard devices the board didnt listen and it proved fatal as the company turned away from a product that had always done well with corporate consumers.
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As a result, Blackberry failed to create a phone that fit growing demand for cheaper mobile devices with more apps and powerful operating systems and it took six years before the company found that out. During that time, Apple, as well as the manufacturers of Android phones, had listened and were reigning supreme over Blackberry.
A famous quote from The Globe and Mail, made by an unnamed stakeholder of the company, maintained: The problem wasnt that we stopped listening to customers. We believed we knew better what customers needed long term than they did.
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(2) Netflix
you’re probably wondering what feat granted Netflix a spot on this list, after all, it’s a raging success. However, in 2011 it landed itself with a bad reputation because it didnt take consumer feedback on board about splitting its DVD and streaming businesses.
In an interview with theNew York Times, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said he had assumed the plan to split the company had been presented to customer focus groups before it was made public but wasnt entirely sure. Furthermore, he couldnt recall what those focus groups had said. What CEO doesn’t remember how well his plan was received
Regardless of research and focus groups, if Netflix had actually been listening to the reactions of its customers, all it really had to do was review over 11,000 mostly negative commentson the companys initial blog postor check Twitter and Facebook. The lesson for any business here is that in the digital era it’s never too hard to find out what your consumers think, and if the reaction isn’t positive and you still go ahead with your plans, then prepare to lose a few customers along the way.
Just ask Netflix! It ended up losing a whopping 800,000 subscribers, its stock price fell to less than half its previous value and the company became one of the tenmost hatedcompanies in America of that time.
Read on to discover the company that refused to jump on the digital bandwagon.
(3) Blockbuster
Ask anyone you know why the Blockbuster collapsed and theyll tell you in one word: Netflix. Blockbuster’s demise, many claimed, was due to online video streaming technology rendering the company’s business model obsolete.
But the truth may be very different. In 2006, Netflix’s Hastings asked Blockbuster to acquire Netflix and Blockbuster turned him down. By 2007, still unable to compete against Blockbuster, Hastings received permission from his board to begin merger talks.
However, a sudden boardroom dispute resulted in a change of CEO for Blockbuster. Newly instated Jim Keyesdidnt seem to understand what business Blockbuster was in and started changing strategies. Within 18 months he had lost 85 per cent of the capital value of the company. Within two years, he lost it all.
It became the sort of company that charged outrageous sums for late fees and cared little for what its customers wanted the most. And after Blockbuster attempted to compete directly with competitors like Netflix, consumers had decided they didn’t want to give Blockbuster their business this was especially so in a time where few people had the many to pay such fees.
Undoubtedly, when a once successful company loses touch with the purpose that made it great and doesn’t put adequate time aside to see whether people would be able to pay for the product in the first place, disaster follows.
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(4) Borders
Family duo Louis and Tom Borders built a bookselling empire that used technology to track inventory and provide insight into sales trends. But it wasnt long before consumers started altering the way they shopped for, and enjoyed, books. To put it simply, Borders wasnt interested in modifying its business model to accommodate them.
While it echoes the same mistake made by Blockbuster, what sets the tales apart is that the team decided to ignore the rising trends around it. It stuck to its roots and while consumers were increasingly headed to the Internet to shop for books and to readers such as Kindle, Borders placed much stock on its brick and mortar stores. Worse yet, it continued to build more stores.
Heres the clincher. When it finally got onto the Internet, instead of opening its own online store though it let Amazon sell its products with Borders’ technology only serving to further boost Amazon’s success. Borders’ slow response to the digital age sealed had sealed its fate.
Essentially, if you intend to keep your customers and earn new ones you must constantly evaluate your core competencies to ensure theyre relevant.
It takes a worker in Britain five days to complete a task that an employee in France would complete in four. Andrew Yates argues that deeper customer interaction will replace productivity to drive growth, so more companies need to get on board with systems of engagement.
