Lessons from the (virtual) road: reflections on our feedback tour

On Friday I wrapped up an amazing trip, taking our new machine on the road to get detailed feedback from over 20 different customers. And I didn’t even leave the office! While our grand tour was virtual, it certainly was intense. I came home exhausted, but also completely fired up. I’m excited to share some of the lessons I learned during these sessions.

# 1 It’s all about keeping our existing customers happy

While we’re excited to promote the features of our new machine, we’re putting the word out in our own Qcify way. We’re big on investing in our existing customers, and we pay a lot of attention to customer service. We count on satisfied customers spreading the word over actively entering the market to acquire new ones. Keeping our customers content takes care of a large part of the sales process when you come up with something new, because there’s already a desire there. That’s why we don’t even have a sales manager position in our company!

There was also a lot of enthusiasm about the new technology we’re developing. Our customers couldn’t wait to see what we had up our sleeves. Several of them said, “there’s always exciting new stuff coming from Qcify.” This confirmed what my sense of things had been for the past few months, but it’s still extremely rewarding to hear it said openly and honestly. That’s why I do it!

#2 Increasing labor costs are high on the agenda

Wages are going up, especially here in California. By 2023 minimum wage will be at 15 dollars an hour (now it’s 12). That creates a snowball effect, because it means people who are earning 15 an hour now will earn more as well. Overall we’re looking at an increase of 25 percent for all salary categories. That’s making companies worried, because it’s going to cut into their margins. The thing is those people aren’t going to become 25 percent faster or more efficient. Sure, people evolve, but not at the rate of technology. That takes generations.

Optimizing efficiency through automation can provide some relief. As the production volumes of factories increase, companies have to be able to stick to their core staff and rely on the assistance of technology instead of taking on new personnel. Automation doesn’t have to eliminate existing jobs, but it can ensure that companies can grow without doing a lot of extra recruiting or hiring seasonal staff. Of course COVID-19 has only accelerated this trend. Especially when you consider social distancing in factories, which is not very easy. One infected person can put the whole company in quarantine.

This is going to be a heavy season for a lot of our customers. Look at almond production: we’re expecting three billion lbs of almonds in California! It’s the biggest harvest ever, but factories have to be able to process it. In the middle of a pandemic there is no certainty about maintaining human capacity when the virus strikes. You can’t just put a food product on pause. In the end it’s people who pay the price when we don’t automate.

#3 The DevOps Approach is the way to go

Several of our customers are open to testing our new machine in their own factory. We could do it all our way, develop things in a bubble and then get it out on the market through classic sales. But that’s not how we work. I’m very happy about that. Instead of deciding that we have all the knowledge in-house to decide on our path, we open our ears. We listen to our customers, we get lots of input, we tweak, we change direction: in other words, our R&D follows the DevOps approach. That means we’re never fully satisfied with the solution we have, that there’s always room for improvement. But always in function of the customer.

For me DevOps is the only approach that holds up. Ultimately, you can know who your target audience is, but opinions change. Every company, including Qcify, wants to bring something to market that will help the sector move forward. If your product or service helps get your customers further, it will also get your company further. That’s why it’s important to keep an open mind, and ask open-ended questions. Asking things from a script just to confirm what you think doesn’t make any sense. Sometimes it seems like companies are posing questions just to hear that they’re doing well. That’s sad, because it frustrates customers. You can’t build meaningful sales or R&D based on forced responses. You have to listen actively, and dare to hear the answers.  

#4 Think of competition as an opportunity

Of course people also ask us about our thoughts on competitors. I don’t feel threatened by that. On the contrary, I consider it an opportunity to stay alert and never take our product or our customers for granted. Fear is a bad advisor. Instead of being afraid we do market research to see what it would take for our customers to switch to another company or provider.

I even reach out to potential competitors. I introduce our company and if they weren’t aware of us, maybe it wakes them up a little. At best, they may have certain things that they’re missing that we can offer or vice versa, and we can partner up. Competition certainly doesn’t make me clam up about what we’re doing at Qcify. I’ve always been very open about what we’re up to, which they generally don’t do in Belgium because they’re afraid people are going to steal their ideas.

While we protect our machines and IP with patents, we also rely on competition to keep us on our toes. If someone gets ahead of us, that means we just weren’t agile enough. The more we do the work to gradually improve, the tougher it is for competitors to just hijack our idea from one day to the next. We believe that a product built on extensively listening to and implementing customer feedback, the valuable energy that goes into that, is hard to replace. It’s always possible, but I’m counting on the Qcify mindset to ensure we always stay sharp.

What do you think is the best way to keep improving your products? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!