You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new. (Steve Jobs)
Being in a customer-facing role, I often tell the product team that whatever we build, they should try to think from a customer’s perspective. As a product team, we spend so much time with our product every day that sometimes we lose sight of the people who might actually use our product. Customers appreciate the ability to easily see data and act on it; they don’t like dealing with the integration of a complex new technology.
Once you get a sense of your customer’s expectations and environment, you can improvise beyond the agreed-upon business requirements in order to exceed customer expectations. When your product team does something special for a customer, it builds a positive rapport and helps you maintain strong relationships, allowing you to improvise beyond their original scope. It is essential to pay close attention to your customers and anticipate their needs.
A customer’s first experience with your product is crucial. For example, I once bought insurance online—and my initial interactions with providers dictated my ultimate decision. I visited three portals, and all had similar options—but the one I chose allowed me to easily fill in all the required data and information, while also offering help if I needed it. Especially when a customer has a lot of options, the primary reason for rejecting a product is often the first experience.
Rightly so, ease of use has become one of the most critical criteria for GRC product selections. If two competing products offer similar services, the customer will probably select the one that allows data to easily move through different workflows because it shows that the product team genuinely understands the end user.
Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) activities often create additional work for end users within an organization. When the risk and compliance team purchases GRC products, they want to ensure that their users can log in smoothly and perform their required activities efficiently. In my experience, the purchasing team will focus primarily on what an end user would do through the product, rather than what they would do—because they know that can be addressed later. A well-designed and engaging product eliminates the time and effort required for user training.
If users love a product from day one, the probability that they will refer it to others is relatively high. This can initiate a viral loop that helps product companies grow very quickly—with little or no marketing spend. As consumers, we’re used to a seamless user experience from all our apps, and we have increasingly high standards for new apps and products.
Developing a product to meet different customer requirements and cultures is a huge challenge—but if you make your product flexible and nimble and focus on an engaging user experience, you will flourish.
If your vendor isn’t treating you with a customer-centric attitude, you can schedule a demo with me to find out how TruOps can not only solve your risk management issues, but also implement an easy-to-use platform that will satisfy both your team and your customers.
