Do You Know What's Really Making Your Customers Happy?

The first time I deposited a check into my bank account using my iPhone, the technology was brand new, and the camera had a little trouble picking up the back side of the check. I had to try it a few times before it worked. But that's not why I remember the moment so vividly.

I remember it because of the amazement I felt when that first transaction went through. Here was something so seemingly simple that had fundamentally changed my life. Because of this feature, I might never have to set foot in a physical bank again. I felt the gravity of the moment because it was incredibly relevant to me; because it had allowed me to do something I had never thought possible, saving me what would amount to countless hours over the span of my life.

That's the feeling of a true technological advancement. We shouldn't just be awed by the power or novelty of it; it should do something for us that we could not have imagined before. Sadly, the vast majority of technological innovations today result in products and features very few people want or need.

What does this have to do with marketing? A lot, actually.

For any organization, at least 50 percent of marketing success hinges on the quality of the product. If your product does what you say it does and solves a genuine problem for customers, you have a solid foundation on which to build a strong story, attract new buyers and retain existing customers. If you don't have the backing of a product that your market wants or needs that works the way it's supposed to, no amount of exceptional marketing or gritty sales efforts can save you.

So you've completed Step 1 and built the right core product for your buyers and your market. There's a lot to be said for focusing as heavily as you can on that core product until you know you've refined it to the point where it's as good as it can be. It's at this point where many organizations fail on the product side, and in doing so, hamstring their marketing and sales teams.

Your core product is your seat at the table. It's the price of admission. Hopefully, it's making your customers happy, but it's primary job is satisfying them. "Yes, this is worth the money I'm paying." My theory is that what actually delights your customers are the features you build around your core products. Features like electronic check deposit. Those seemingly small elements that become much larger because they make your customer's life more convenient, save them time, show them that you understand them.

Here are a few other examples of technological innovations that fit into this category:

• The Square Stand - The launch of the Square Card Reader in 2010 is one of my favorite examples to use when I'm helping companies understand the value of strategic narrative. It wasn't about the "feature," a cheap piece of plastic. It was about opening up real opportunities for millions of small businesses; about helping people achieve their dreams. The Square Stand, released in 2016, is a great example of an innovation that made an incredible difference for many of those very same businesses by giving them a one-piece digital register. The technology itself wasn't groundbreaking, but the use case was. It's the reason why you'll see a Stand in so many of the small businesses you frequent every week.

  
  

• Apple Keyboard Code Verification - Another of my favorites. I wouldn't call this feature underrated, as it was a big deal when it was released as part of iOS 12. The reason I'm including it on this list is because of how small it is, at least in comparison to so many other features on an iPhone. And yet, its simplicity is part of what makes it such a profound advancement. In the earlier days of two-factor authentication, as great as it was to know that our information was better protected, switching between Messages and back to websites that would often automatically refresh to an earlier stage in the process was a constant annoyance. Given how many different accounts each of us hold today, and the fact that nearly every one now requires two-factor authentication, the amount of time this feature will save each individual iPhone user over time is incalculable.

  
  

• Amazon Buy Now Button - Amazon patented the 1-click payment back when it was still primarily an online bookstore. Critics might say that such a feature has contributed and will continue to contribute to the rise of reckless consumerism, and while that may be so, it's also the type of technological innovation that was created with the customer in mind. Think about the many essentials that Amazon offers today - diapers, baby formula medical products - and the many others that could change a customer's day in combination with the company's ultra-fast shipping, such as last-minute gifts or something a user forgot while traveling. It's not a feature for feature's sake; it serves an important purpose.

These features likely won't be what sells your product to the buyer, or even what puts your pitch over the top. Your core product needs to do that. Instead, these features must created with little expectation of return, the reward being the happiness and the word-of-mouth buzz they create with your current customers and the people they talk to.

At the end of the day, the thought around building these features is the reason certain businesses win while others lose. And it's precisely why this conversation is as much about marketing as it is about product and strategy. Marketing is about explaining the benefits of your core product and ensuring that the people in your target market understand why they need it. But it's also about surprising them and delighting them, and that often requires a collaboration between marketing, product and experience.

The age-old adages about understanding your customers often don't go far enough. We look at those more as how to get them to buy our stuff. That's important, but the real value in understanding, really understanding, our customers is so that we can do things that surprise and delight them. When that happens, we build the trust that set us apart in their minds, and makes it more likely that they'll buy from us not just once, but again and again.