User Experience – My product is better than your product!

Let me tell you a little story. There is this guy Danny, he lives in Denver, CO. He is 44 years old and married with 4 kids. For the last twenty years he has worked in the corporate world, clocking in and out each day. His real passion is to have his own sports equipment store. So, he quits his job, gets a bank loan, and open the shop. He “thinks” his customers want the cheapest sports equipment to save money. He said that because the economy is bad, people are looking to save money and therefore if it was him, he would try to find cheap sports equipment. So he opens the doors to his store and to his dismay nobody shows up. Two months go by and he’s barely making enough money to pay for rent (which by the way is $3,200/mo).  One gentleman just happened to be passing by and decided to stop and look around the store. He also happened to be a User  Experience Expert. He offers Danny some advice. “You’ve got to learn more about your customers and what they really want,” he said. Danny got his business card and the UX guy left the store. After another few weeks of struggle, Danny called the UX guy, they got together and the UX guy started to interview the customers. He found out that they were looking for good quality sports equipment because they wanted their kids to be safe when they played sports, instead of using cheap equipment that could break easily. Once Danny fixed his business approach, he had a 135% increase in sales.

Think about the products that your company sells. Are they full of bells and whistles? Are they so “cool” that people talk about them non-stop? If that’s so, then how come your business is slow? How come you’re not making as many sales as you like? Maybe it’s not you, maybe it’s your product. Have you asked your customers what THEY prefer to see? Did you do research to see how emotionally connected your customers are to your products? When was the last time you visited with your customers face-to-face? These sound like tough questions – and they are!

What you want is a User Experience professional who will help you analyze your customers and find out what they REALLY want to see in your products. What drives (or what motivations they have) to make a purchase?

This might be the right step in the right direction for your business. So why wait?

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