I recently participated in a focus group for a company with which I have a business referral relationship. They received tremendous value from the session and I walked away with some good insights.
One of my top lessons from this was realizing that we all take for granted what our clients and customers think of us, the value we provide and the way we do business. I remember reading about a study where employees ranked what they felt their customers thought was important about the firm’s products and services. The company then had a market research go to the customers with the same question(s). The customers’ impression was almost 180o different than that of the employees.
This session reinforced that none of us should assume what people want. When we stop talking and ask questions we find out the true wants and needs. If we don’t ask we run the risk of hitting the bulls-eye but having it be on the wrong target.
“The secret to being boring is to say everything.” Voltaire
