What consumers want and what your Product team can learn from it

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

September 2021 saw two very interesting lists published with, surprisingly enough, the same word finishing on top of them: Respect. First, it was the number one song of all time as voted by more than 250 music experts for Rolling Stones magazine. "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, a huge 60's hit, topped songs by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other leading artists in this special list of best songs ever. Then, according to Consumer Reports magazine, in the ranking of its "What Customers Want/Rage over" survey, the "Respect" word\value also finished on top. The category of "For companies to treat consumers fairly" gained 87%, more than any other choice presented to the people surveyed.

The "respect" factor, relating to customers wishing to be treated fairly, appeared in more top-ranked categories, such as in "For companies to promise consumers that the problem will not happen again" (Number 2 on the list with 76%) or in the "For the company to put itself in my (Consumer's shoes)" which finished 5th with 71% and " To thank me for contributing to their business as a client" (#7 with 64%).

General surveys can have problems and consumers' surveys are no different. The wording of open-ended questions or choices can be misleading. One needs to analyze the people surveyed' demographics in order to better understand the results and consumers' sentiments can change quickly, as trends come and go quickly, making such phone surveys seem out of time and even redundant.

And yet, the customers' voice remains crucial, maybe now more than ever, for companies and especially for Product teams within companies, to examine and analyze in order to advance in their competitive markets.

Data collection and analysis, the essence of every organization hoping to improve on its business challenges, must be more accurate, timely, and as diversified as possible. Since Customer Intelligence is an ongoing and real-time "must-have" factor, companies in today's market must conduct 24\7 surveys, constantly analyze them and make quick and agile decisions based on their results. Companies must realize that surveys are not a "One moment in time" reality but an ongoing and fast-moving necessity for them.

Customer complaints and attitudes, such as in the above mentioned Consumer Reports magazine’s recent poll, are definitely reflecting overall general sentiments of customers. But companies need specific market information tracking and analysis so that they can respond quickly and resolve complaints while also planning ahead and considering what their customers really want. Product teams can gather tons of information from customers’ feedback but the structure of such collection must match the current demands for real-time and agile data monitoring coupled with quick companies' analysis and reaction to their customers' voicings and conversations.

Product Enablement platforms can supply all that. There's no need to ask consumers what they want as each company can simply follow them from anywhere on the open web. There's no need to categorize questions or values, but collect customers' comments and then sort them into categories. And there is no need to count the votes, as comments counts are taken care of by the AI bots. Finally, there's no need for the Product teams to wait for the next survey since the survey really never stops. In our online world, consumers respond to products and services all the time so we constantly know what they want, or what they rage about, every minute of the day.

So R-E-S-P-E-C-T it is, and if companies wish to respect their customers, a product enablement platform can help them carry such plans in a much better way.

Want to hear more about Affogata's Product Enablement platform? Talk to us.