Voices » HBR Voices » Rita McGrath » Psst! Your Product Annoys Your Customers
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11:10 AM Wednesday September 3, 2008
Recently, I blogged about the power of adding a strong emotional, positive characteristic to your offerings as a way to change the customers' experience and create a more complete connection to their everyday lives. Equally compelling, although a little less obvious, are finding ways to improve the customers' experience by taking away something that they find negative -- irritating, inconvenient, painful, or even worse, scary and disgusting.
Over time, those things that customers once tolerated and put up with can become gradually less and less acceptable -- often when competitors come up with ways to prevent customers from having to deal with the problems. For instance, who today would find it acceptable to be unable to see what you were working on, exactly as it was going to appear on a printed page? And yet, WYSIWYG is a relatively recent innovation in the great scheme of things -- today, its absence would doom a prospective offering.
I was reminded of this when perusing a recent New York Times story on the emerging battleground of software pre-installed on our Windows-based computers. Over time, manufacturers and providers of software have struck deals -- a LOT of deals -- that allow trial, test, limited and other initial versions of their software to be pre-installed on your computer. So when you buy a shiny new computer, you don't just get the software you thought you were buying, but a whole lot of other software, much of which you don't want and don't need. And guess what? Getting rid of it is fiddly and time-consuming and exposes you to the risk of deleting something you really do need from your system. No wonder authorities such as the Wall Street Journal's technology guru Walter Mossberg have taken to calling such software "bloatware" or the even more damning "craplets". This sort of thing, which some people tolerate, creates major dissatisfaction among others, and positive rage among still others.
Any enraging attribute creates opportunities, which is one of the best things about enraging features. Into this fray, enter Best Buy, with its offer to eliminate all that excess and unwanted software for a mere $30. As an in-store display makes clear, you can take your new PC home and mess about eliminating applications you didn't ask for and don't want, or for an extra $30, you get a nice, clean, machine which only has exactly what you wanted. No slow starts, no baffling come-ons for software you don't know you need (or do you?) and no confusing competition among three (or more) programs that do the same thing.
The lesson here is that over time, there are predictable dynamics in the world of customer engagement. If a practice (such as pre-loading trial software) is lucrative, companies will engage in it. The more lucrative it is, the more they'll do, to the point at which customers rebel. Why? Because yesterday's tolerable features become less and less tolerable as they become more intrusive and customers more impatient. And if someone can make money getting rid of the tolerated feature, they'll do it, creating the next battleground of competition. Be warned, banks that are gorging on charging customers fees, phone companies that load up on special service charges and technologies that require that you buy add-on products (such as printers that come without cables, and products that come without batteries).
I always encourage companies to think about whether the new things they are adding to their offers really benefit the customer or not. If not, it runs the risk of being a tolerated, disliked, or ultimately hated feature that can put your company at a competitive disadvantage.
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Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath studies innovation, corporate venturing, and entrepreneurship. She is well known for developing practical tools and frameworks to make the innovation process less risky and difficult, and to bring a dose of reality to growth programs. She works extensively with leadership teams in Global 1,000 companies. McGrath has co-authored six Harvard Business Review articles and two books: The Entrepreneurial Mindset (2000), MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth (2005), and Discovery Driven Growth (2009).
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Comments
Even though i do agree with the essence of the article, i cannot help but questioning the chosen examples.
While those extra "bloatware" programs are meant to generate additional income from another source than the customer (and thereby reducing prices for the customer, while maintaing the same margin), bank services, special phone services and printers/products without cables/batteries are not only annoying, but also more expensive for the customer and thereby completely different in their nature compared to the main example.
I also do not see how these enraging features create any opportunities at all.
- Posted by Colin Mitchell
September 4, 2008 10:44 AM
Hmm,
Negative Option Billing
30 bucks to get rid of crap I don't want.
I don't like it.
If you want to include bloatware - put it on a separate CD-ROM in the box with a coupon or three - let the people that want to install it go ahead.
I hate that crap enough that when I buy a machine I re-format the drive & rebuild from scratch - not only do I not want that bloatware, I really really don't want all those pop-ups advising there is a cool new upgrade available.
- Posted by Elliot Ross
September 4, 2008 2:29 PM
Could we extend the title to Psst! Your people annoy your customers?. One of the problems I find whilst working within organisations is that the people are unable to communicate the value, benefits and results of these product extensions thus they become redundant or an irritant.
It reminds me of Theodore Levitt famous quote, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!"
- Posted by Jenny Patterson
October 24, 2008 6:57 AM
American business then wonders why, at best, is viewed as amoral. Best Buy has the purchasing volume to specify what should be preloaded, but instead create a new revenue stream. If they were smart marketers, instead of greedy stupid, they would promote buying at their store because of the absence of bloatware. Volume growth dollars would not have to increase substantially as I would think, with all the labour and promotional material in, they probably are contributing almost nothing in net income removing the software. Easy way to market differentiate with a me too product.
Elliot Ross is correct to reformat, as probably the Best Buy removal leaves garbage behind, as all the Crapware ghosts are not removed. However, I only buy white box ( no name, custom build ) computers because I will not support the manufacturer or retailer that allows crapware, plus I get what I exactly want at a competitive price. An easier way to go.
As to the printer cables, there was a time when a parallel and USB cable would have had to be included. Use one and throw the other out is more than a silly approach. Now with almost universal USB, and most printers being replacement, a cable is not needed. Then there is the matter of what length; shorter is better for performance, but does not always reach. I am on my xx printer(s), same cable, a nice gold plated one, which I would not want to buy each time.
Batteries should not be included. If a product does not use a standard size rechargeable NiMH ( nickel-metal hydride ) battery, I do not buy the product. The exception of course is special applications, for example, watch batteries. Putting carbon batteries with the product to maintain a price point because they are cheap, compromises product performance. Using alkaline changes the price point and creates unnecessary waste. Rechargeable alkaline worsens pricing, and NiMH is prohibitive. Let the consumer decide, plainly mark the box. Sell the power options, educate the consumer, do the world a favour, while having the same net revenue stream.
- Posted by Ross Miles
October 24, 2008 9:44 AM
Every major American manufacturer today talks about productively and efficiently serving the needs of the customer, but where is the customer value in all of this?
Let me see if I have this right. You fill my new computer hard drive with garbage I don't want. Then I have to pay Best Buy extra to remove it. Or I have to spend my own time getting rid of this unwanted material during my setup process. Interesting. How are Dell, HP, etal. walking their talk of value and productivity by doing this?
I come from the school that says you deliver value to your customer (that's me)by understanding what I want and giving me exactly that. Oh, and you remove the things I don't want (and would not pay for)because that's considered waste. This is called "Lean Thinking".
By adding Crapware these brilliant computer marketing gurus are not only violating this basic principle of "LEAN" (waste reduction), they are compounding the horror by ADDING waste!
Now, maybe they figure it might be worth irritating a vast number of their customers with this "waste" because occasionally some purchaser will actually activate the trial software. But I seriously doubt that any of these manufacturers has ever actually asked their customers about the value of this stuff from their (the customer's) point of view. Another violation of "Voice of the Customer" principle of LEAN.
Come on guys, get with it. I'll buy from the vendor who saves me time and improves my customer experience over the long-haul every time.
- Posted by Adam Zak
October 24, 2008 3:10 PM
Companies who are packaging food for sale to consumers should ask themselves this question:
"Could an 80 year old widow open this?".
I am well short of 80 but have been amazed at how unfriendly packaging can be. Even before you get to experience the product you have to wrestle it to the floor!
A good guide to consumer friendly products is that the manufacturer makes it easy for the user to send feedback and suggest improvements.
I am amazed at the bunker mentality of many manufacturers who do not want to hear from end users.
Thank you for an excellent article.
- Posted by John Townsend
October 24, 2008 5:52 PM
Companies who are packaging food for sale to consumers should ask themselves this question:
"Could an 80 year old widow open this?".
I am well short of 80 but have been amazed at how unfriendly packaging can be. Even before you get to experience the product you have to wrestle it to the floor!
A good guide to consumer friendly products is that the manufacturer makes it easy for the user to send feedback and suggest improvements.
I am amazed at the bunker mentality of many manufacturers who do not want to hear from end users.
Thank you for an excellent article.
- Posted by John Townsend
October 24, 2008 5:54 PM
I think it's more complicated. Sometimes bundled software adds value for the consumer, but the problem is that the software is being added based on what benefits the computer manufacturer. More input from customers about what they would like have on their computers would be helpful. I take everything off as soon as I get the computer home, but people less familiar with computers might not know about these programs.
Also, does the computer manufacturer pass some of the revenue to the consumer in the form of cheaper computer prices?
- Posted by Taj Carson
November 3, 2008 2:34 PM