Thinking on Customers’ Perspective

Once, I visited a traditional business. They printed a slogan on the wall: the customer is God. I asked the boss of the company: Is the customer really God? He said that of course, all our efforts are to satisfy the customers. If they are satisfied, we have the value of existence.

I continued to ask if the customers want to leave you and go to your competitor’s business, then he would be satisfied, will you still satisfy him? If you have to give all the profits to him, then he would feel satisfied, will you still let him be satisfied? If they are God, what is "customer loyalty"? How can God be loyal to someone only if people are loyal to God?

Concept: Thinking on customers’ perspective

The era when the product is king and the channel is king has faded away. Nowadays, customers truly grasp the power to kill the enterprise. From the idea of ​​B2C to C2B, the business has to think on customers’ perspective.

In the era when the product is king and the channel is king, the customers are never God, they are just the "cash machine" that we are kind to. Be kind to them because they spit money.When we enter the era of "customers are kings", when customers truly grasp the right to choose and use their fingers to kill the enterprise, they are God. Only when customers can easily switch from one platform or one product to another, and the enterprise is so close to their enemy every day, the customer is truly God.

The Internet has greatly reduced transaction costs, marginal costs, and respected all products in front of customers. So how do you do business when the customer is king? Turn around, from the agent of the product to the spokesperson of the customer.

Case

Run Liu wrote in his book "Internet + Strategy Edition: Traditional Enterprise, the Internet is kicking the door". In the past, when taxis were on the road, they picked up whoever they saw it in the field of vision. This is the view of taxi driver B2C. With the share rides apps, you can choose your options, uber pool, uber XL, luxury, etc. All the taxis/cars will jump out for you to choose, this is the C2B view. Especially the special cars, after you get on the ride, the driver will ask whether you are cold or not, do you want to drink water, and would you like to use the WIFI in the car. Why? Because you can give him a rating after getting off the ride, if the evaluation is poor, it will be difficult for him to take the next order.

DiDi in China is so popular today. The essence is to take the option from the drivers and hand it over to the customers. It turned itself from the driver's agent to the customers’ spokesperson.

Example 1:

For example, Shanghai has a community e-commerce company that makes fresh fruits, called the Worm Mother Neighborhood Group. They first let the users in the WeChat group place orders, then take the customers’ needs. They go to the primary wholesale markets and negotiate with the merchants, and help customers to purchase the high-quality fruits they want to eat at low prices. The group also tried to bypass the wholesale markets and went directly to the rural greenhouses to negotiate a cheaper price for their customers. Their customers then ate strawberries that were safe, delicious and cheap.

Example 2:

Another example is the “Necessary Mall” endorsing a group of people who are willing to pay for quality but are not willing to pay for the brand premium. Necessary Mall go-to Chinese first-class OEM to customize the goods. Necessary Mall has launched a sports glasses with a brand of glasses founder for 259 yuan, and the same configuration of glasses with this brand, it is said that the market price is about several thousand yuan; a large brand of men's shoes produced by the foundry only need to sell three or four hundred yuan in Necessary Mall, but the same quality of this brand of men's shoes is priced at two or three thousand yuan in the market.

Example 3:

There are many examples of thinking on the customers’ perspective, such as Alipay.

The core of Taobao's success is that it developed the means of secured transactions "Alipay." The logic of Alipay is that if you order it, the payment will be paid to Alipay, but it will not be paid to the seller. After you confirm the receipt, the seller can get the money. Taobao used Alipay, unconditionally inclined to buyers, became a buyer spokesperson, and achieved great success.

Summary: How to become a "customer spokesperson"?

First, you can learn through an Internet company, or a software company, to set up a "product manager" position. This position is essentially a representation of the customers within your company. You should not assess the sales level of the product manager. You should only assess how much he really represents the user and fights against other departments accordingly. Microsoft has a famous troika theory, product manager, development, testing, is a troika, Development represents products, testing represents quality, and product managers represents of customers. Each of the departments restricts each other and move forward together.

Second, in some industries with certain conditions, from B2C's explosion ideas to C2B's large-scale private customization ideas. The "explosive" thinking is still the thinking of the industrial age. In the age of users, based on the development of Industrialization 4.0, we can consider how to customize the products that are only produced for each user. Not the first one, but the only one, thus eliminating the explosion. This is what Ma Yun said about C2B, just like Red-necked West takes a flexible production line to produce a custom-made suit; Haier uses a lamp-free factory to produce a private custom-made washing machine.