Forces of Customer Attraction

All of us create products and services that get a job done unless we are mad scientists or hobby inventors. Even the most unsuccessful products can get someone’s job done, where they fail in the market is that they never move from being used by few to many. We also saw that people have different jobs to be done, and in different contexts, they hire different products to get the same job done.

There are four forces to play the influence the success of your product or service in the market. Even your advertisement campaigns need to reflect these forces. The four forces at play are,

#1 Push factor: Your customers are getting their job done even today, but they have a lot of problems with the existing solution. The current solution or way of getting things done is hard, painful, frustrating, cumbersome, complex, and so on. They are so fed up with it that the current solution and it is pushing them away — deterring usage — like bad customer service. Where is it pushing them? It is pushing them to go and look for other opportunities. This is expressed in feedbacks, reviews, and the online search strings are usually expressing some amount of dissatisfaction with the current product or searching for ways to fix things. Here it is worth digging deeper and exploring what aspects of the current solution is causing pain. You don’t want to meddle with what is good in the current solution. For instance I was really annoyed with having tens of remote controls for the TV, because managing a TV, two DVD players, a Blu-ray home theatre system, a dish TV, a satellite TV loaded me with six remotes which meant 12 batteries of different sizes, that was truly annoying — so I opted for a Smart TV and a universal remote.

#2 Pull factor: Your solution has such an ingenious way of getting the job done that customers are super tempted to ditch their solution and jump the gun. They are willing to shift to your product or service even if they are not complaining about their current product. There is a huge value shift that is occurring and the gain factors are increasing. These are products that shift the dimension and parameters of performance to an unmatched level. For instance, moving from a number keyboard to a QWERTY keyboard, and later to a touchscreen-based one made us shift from phones to smartphones — a very progressive feature set, that kept making the job easier, intuitive and supreme in design.

The above two are demand generators, you have to combine the above two tactfully — current solution is painful enough that it is pushing the customer and you are there to attract them with not just your pain solving capability but are also having a lucrative value to offer. It is not just about getting the job done, it is about getting the job done well.

#3 Inertia: The customer have lived with the problem for so long that it has become a habit — sometimes they have even become experts at doing the job this way. I am satisfied with the current solution, or I know how to overcome the problem that arises. I also find fixing the problem more affordable than buying a new product — which is all about the switching cost. In non-consumerism based countries and cultures this is the force that we will definitely meet. For less valuable items the push comes rather easily than for items of heavy investment. I would replace my kitchen knife without thinking that much — unless I am a Master Chef and my culinary guru presented me with this knife — but I would think a lot to dispose of my first car even when the buddy gives me a lot of trouble with maintenance and repair — because repairs seems much easier than buying a new car. Also, current contexts, especially when current circumstances would inhibit this jump — I already have a student loan, I cannot study further.

#4 Anxieties: A better way of doing things means a new learning curve and mastery needs to be attained, that suddenly makes people wary. This is a big worry especially when we are trying new brands or using solutions from players who are new in the market. For startups, this space is a must focus. How do you assure your customer that you can do a better job than the other guy? So when we were sitting down in a new product development session the coach asked us — how many of you needed a tutorial to use Facebook? The answers were pretty much none of us. It is easy to figure out on your own, but even otherwise the first time user guide on the digital app gives you a quick five or six step orientation to get started. That is how intuitive and easy your new products should be. Also, remember that you cannot replace an emotional (personal or social) job with just a functional job.

The cost of solving your existing problem < The cost of buying and using a new solution

The above two are demand reducers. Which means the customer is getting tempted to stay in the status quo and not change. This is about showing news and better ways of getting the job done. This is not about improving current jobs, it is about finding new or undeserved or unmet needs and wants of your customer and going behind them.

Another great way of seeing this concept is that, when new products hit the market, the jobs to be done a view of an innovator and an early adopter will make them use the push or pull factor to make the switch. But as you keep moving right — that is after you crossed the chasm — on the curve you will see there is an excessive presence of inertia and anxiety, and addressing that would help the switch to happen…

Key takeaways of the forces

Do not complicate: Most times when we think of a better solution, we pack a lot of punch with the feature set and sometimes that makes things more complex to comprehend. Simplifying is one of the best ways to attract your customer to move to a new solution, especially when the product has been there too long in the system.

Living with problems: Customers becomes champions at living with the problem and converting them into even habits in the long run. So much so it would never even occur to them that they are suffering from a problem in the first place. If you spot it, the one best way is to show them a better way of doing things even exists.

Simplify: Simplifying doesn’t mean making things simple. It is to uncomplicate things, modularize things, segregate things, sequence things and make it appear easy and coordinated. To build simple means your background processes become more and more robust and complex and you should be able to manage that complexity without adding to the unease.

May these forces be with you… until the next blog, bye bye!!!

Image Credits:

New Product Adoption by Tom Fishburne the Marketoonist