How Listening to Customers Drives Innovation

Consumers are increasingly vocal about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to businesses they frequent and products they buy. Everyone has an opinion and every one of those opinions is important.

When you learn how to listen to your customers early in the innovation process and how their ideas can improve your business or product, you’ll be able to better suit their needs and earn their loyalty. If you don’t? Another company will.

How to Build a Better Listening Platform

Since various listening platforms work well for different companies, customers, and situations, there is no one right answer. In fact, it’s best to use a combination of strategies. Whether you use Twitter, online review sites, phone-in surveys, crowdsourcing, town hall meetings, or another creative technique, keep your customers’ preferences at the forefront.

When deciding what works best for your business, take the following suggestions to heart:

  • Accept the limitations of collecting and analyzing data.
  • Focus less on revenue and profit and more on other indicators of success, such as repeat business and positive word-of-mouth reviews.
  • Realize that this generation of consumers don’t want to be told what they can or cannot do. They want the freedom to make their own choices.
  • Think mobile first.
  • Offer immediate fulfillment, whether it’s a delivered promise or a delivered package.
  • Constantly innovate and continually evolve in order to grab the public’s attention and keep it focused on your business.
  • Don’t wait too long to ask for the input of your customers. Do it early and often.

When it comes to innovation, your customers can help. When you have conversations with them, they’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t. Then you’ll reap the benefits of an effective communication campaign.

Examples of How Listening to Customers Paid Off Big Time

Get inspired by these companies who are at the forefront of the customer-centric movement.

  • Shake Shack and Chick-fil-A have made above-and-beyond customer service their norm. These companies encourage and empower their employees to be generous and kind to their customers, even (and especially) when there is a complaint. This creates a welcoming atmosphere where customers feel like friends rather than an order number.
  • Etihad Airways, National Airline of the UAE, wanted to harness customer creativity when they asked passengers to help them “completely reinvent the customer service” in the air. Flying has been revolutionized with first class “Apartments” and  “Residences” complete with a living area, bedroom, and shower room. Input from family travelers led to free airport strollers, the ability to pre-order bassinets and baby meals, and inflight children’s entertainment and fun packs.
  • REI considered its customer base when it decided to close their doors on Black Friday last year. Instead of playing into the norm of opening early and staying open late, they encouraged their employees and customers to enjoy a day outside to reconnect during the holidays. Making the announcement grabbed the attention and praise of not only its loyal customers but of other store brands as well.
  • Electronic Arts (EA) implemented a strategy that involved canceling an online fee after it heard feedback from annoyed customers. The company is now more player-centric than ever with a money-back guarantee and extremely popular competitive gaming events.

As the above examples show, when you embrace customer interaction and the resulting opinions and feedback, your business will be able to better meet needs and desires, ultimately leading to happier repeat customers and higher profit margins.


Garret Crosby is a freelance writer for multiple online publications. He has recently worked with ROI Call Center Solutions. Garret is committed to learning about innovative methods that will help people to progress in their careers and grow their businesses. When he is not busy writing, Garret loves to be outdoors, and he loves to be with friends.

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