If you had to say to your Team that fewer than 8 out of 100 people know the difference between a search engine and a browser, would they believe you? Would it make a difference to how you built software? You know, those geeky bits that express technical prowess, but user ignorance?

“How do you get your boss to approve something, the customer service people to understand the pain a system is causing, or the folks in engineering to see things your way?” asks Seth Godin in a recent blog.

“Powerpoint was invented for this precise function, and we all know what’s become of that. Here’s a new way that’s extraordinarily effective: Make a video. Take a Flip or cheap video camera and interview your customers. Ask them questions and show the answers to your Team.”

Ji Lee at Google masterminded this man-on-the-street interview, asking over 50 passersby of different ages and backgrounds in the Times Square in New York, “What is a browser?” Watch the many responses people came up with.

“Invest an hour,” Godin suggests, “and suddenly, it’s not you who’s talking, asking, complaining or being ignorant. It’s your customers.”

Go on, give it a try.

Good customer service is a valuable asset, especially when upholding the Agile Manifesto’s value of collaborating with customers over product development.

It’s wise for Agile teams to bear in mind that a good reputation for service is built up over many years of effort by Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service departments. Don’t take it personally when they say, “I’ll never let Product Development anywhere near my customers.”

So take note of these common customer service mistakes and by going out of your way to avoid them, you’ll strengthen your product’s position in a competitive market, and have greater access to customers’ insights on product development.

1. Untrained staff. It does not matter whether your company has 2 or 200 employees, you must train everyone in the art of customer service. Customers will not tolerate rudeness, incorrect information, or apathy on the part of your staff. Not training the staff – which should include everyone – is a major mistake made by too many businesses.
2. Trying to win an argument. It is worth remembering that it takes five times more effort (and cost) to gain one new customer as it takes to maintain one current customer. Therefore, by winning an argument you may be losing a valuable customer.
3. Inaccessibility. If you want repeated collaboration, you need to be accessible to your customers. If it is difficult for them to contact you, they may not be willing to collaborate in future.
4. Standing by your product. While it may be easier to say, “That’s the way it works,” you should be able to find ways to blend in new ideas raised by your customers. Using the phrase: “If I do that for you, I’ll have do to it for everyone,” is one of the fastest ways to lose a customer.
5. Keeping your word. If you promised a customer that a feature would be ready by a certain day, then it should there by that day. If you fail there can be no excuses; the only words you can say are, “I’m sorry,” backed up by an extra effort to make the customer happy by delivering.
6. Poor record keeping. “I’m just not good with names,” is not acceptable. If you keep referring to people incorrectly they will not continue doing business with you.
7. The runaround. When someone calls for you, they expect you to be the first or second person they speak to. People do not like being passed from one person to another repeatedly: Passing the buck is like passing the customer on to your competitor.
8. Email cop-outs. Since email is impersonal, you may be tempted to use it to deliver bad news. Or you may decide to ignore emailed customer complaints hoping they will simply forget about the issue. These are cop outs, or excuses for not providing adequate customer service. It is very simple for you to respond to each inquiry quickly and personally.
9. Failure to listen. Often people do not listen closely to their customers, responding with an answer that does not match the problem because they were not paying attention. You should make sure you practice the art of listening and note-taking.
10. Forgetting the basics. “Please,” “thank you,” “we’re sorry about the inconvenience,” and so on are simple phrases that cost nothing, take little effort, demonstrate humility, and win customers’ hearts.

I’m amazed how often users describe their needs in solution terms: “If it could just do it this way,” one user may say. Or “Just put a button here.” Or their first look at your latest release evokes the reaction, “That’s nice, but I would have preferred if you delivered that other feature we spoke about. I would use the application far more if you gave me that.”

We regularly come face to face with an array of market place perceptions and expectations that have arisen through a variety of sources: Site visits, requirements gathering, sales pitches, marketing material, emails, blog posts, telephone conversations. It could be that your mere presence ‘on site’ raises expectations of imminent action.

Uncovering user needs
Because they rely on your software to do their jobs well, users hang on every word that’s said and create their own ideas of ease of solution and timing. Users often perceive that you have no other work to do but solve their issues. Nothing raises users’ expectations more than, “Please write down all your issues and we’ll deal with them one-by-one.” Users will expect a quid pro quo for their time, and for them doing your job for you.

When managing agile product development professionals we should challenge them to see beyond user solutions to uncover users’ real needs. To do this they need to spend time getting as close to their users’ businesses as possible. In a very respectful way your people need to be frank and honest when confronting user issues. Remember too that customers have businesses to run; respect them by not allowing empty promises. Don’t allow committments to be made on behalf of the team to solutions and timing until you have negotiated with them. Respect your other business stakeholders by considering their expectations of return on your efforts as well.

When you interact with your users, do you hear user solutions, or user needs, in what they’re saying?

When I interact with customers and users I spend some of that time asking sincere questions about their business, how it fares in different economic conditions, and how they view their prospects. Apart from the emotional connection this makes, it’s important for product developers in all roles to understand at least the basic economic drivers of their customers’ market places.

Your customers are often physical businesses operating in particular locales; this at least in part determines their trading conditions. For example, law firms doing bankruptcy work often perform better in a recession.

Real people, real priorities
And it’s always useful to remember that your users are real people who trust your products to make them perform well in their jobs.

When I’m prioritising backlog items I visualise the implications each has on the economic prospects of representative customers and users. This offers the market place a chance for their voice to be heard during this crucial time, and that their preferences, not yours, rise to the top of the list.

Are your product professionals visiting customer sites enough? Which customer or user personifies your product’s market place?