You should understand the impact of the bouba/kiki effect on your business
- it is hard for customers to articulate what they want
- companies tend to focus on product features rather than customer experiences
- heavily researched products with many features the market said it wanted still failed in the market
Customers often feedback that the wait to get to customer support is too long. Knowing the bouba/kiki effect, do not immediately seek to address the feedback by adding more customer support staff! Instead, understand why your customers are looking for support.
For example,
- Is the product too hard to use? If it is, what and where is the hurdle?
- Is the product documentation unclear or lacking? If it is, what is and why do customers find so?
- Is your self-service support inadequate? If it is, what is and how do customers decide to continue self-service or contact customer support?
If the problem lies in inadequate self-service support, PBrain is here to help! Drop us a message to get started!
By Dr. Laurence J. Stybel and Maryanne Peabody on Psychology Today
The Limits of Listening
Ninety percent of new ventures fail (Patel, 2015). The top reason is that founders spend time and money producing products/services that are not wanted.
The easy explanation is entrepreneurial narrow-vision. The bouba/kiki effect suggests a more complex reason: Potential customers know what they want but they cannot articulate it. The dilemma is reflected in Henry Ford’s classic statement: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said, ‘a faster horse.’”
The bouba/kiki effect has implications for all leaders…