Setting the priorities right
It is all about customer benefits that drive success
Moving to the Fifth question that every founder needs to ask themselves ( for a deep dive into other question(s) in this series please subscribe to my blog)
The question is:
Does my business prioritise customer benefits and experiences? As mentioned above, you may be offering the same as everyone else; sometimes uncovering a particular aspect of customer benefit can make a big difference.
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Businesses often find themselves offering products or services similar to their competitors. The question then arises: Does my business prioritise customer benefits and experiences?
Even if you’re offering the same core product as everyone else, discovering and focusing on a particular aspect of the customer experience or benefit can set you apart and make a big difference.
As Simon Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” When you focus on the benefits and experiences your customers truly value, you shift the emphasis from simply delivering a product to providing a solution that resonates with their needs and emotions.
Moving Beyond Features: The Importance of Customer Benefits
It’s easy for businesses to fall into the trap of focusing too heavily on product features. The experts who build the features are truly passionate about “it”. After all, features are concrete, measurable, and often the basis for comparing competitors. While features are important, they are not what keeps customers coming back. Benefits do. It is never about “it”, it is always about “them”.
Benefits answer the question: What’s in it for the customer? It’s not about what your product does but about how it improves the customer’s life, solves a problem, or enhances their experience. The benefit can be a feeling that is created or a satisfied ego. This is where businesses can set themselves apart. Prioritising customer benefits is about consistently asking yourself how each feature you offer translates into something valuable for your customers. If it doesn't you have to ask yourself if it is needed.
Why the Customer Experience Matters
In addition to focusing on benefits, the overall customer experience is equally crucial. In today’s market, where customers have endless choices at their fingertips, how they feel when interacting with your brand can be the deciding factor. An excellent product paired with a poor experience will struggle to retain customers. Conversely, an average product delivered through a seamless, positive experience can win over even the most discerning consumers.
Consider companies like Apple. Their products, while technologically advanced, aren’t always presenting themselves as feature-heavy. They excel at creating a cohesive, delightful experience for their users—from the design of their physical stores to the packaging of their products, right down to their after-sales service. This focus on experience sets them apart and creates customer loyalty.
How to Prioritise Customer Benefits and Experiences in Your Business
Let’s look at some actionable ways to ensure your business places customer benefits and experiences at the forefront:
1. Reassess Your Offering Through the Customer’s Lens
To truly prioritise benefits and experiences, you must view your product or service as your customer does. Ask yourself:
What problem is this solving for my customers?
How does this product improve their lives, either practically or emotionally?
What aspect of the experience will keep them coming back?
The goal is to uncover the deeper benefits that may not be immediately obvious. For instance, an eco-friendly cleaning product gives customers peace of mind by helping them make ethical choices. This emotional benefit is just as important as the product’s functional benefits.
Actionable Step: Conduct customer interviews or gather feedback, specifically asking about how your product impacts their lives. Focus on both the functional and emotional benefits they perceive.
2. Identify the Small Differences That Make a Big Impact
Sometimes, it’s the subtle differences in how you deliver a product or service that can make the most significant impact. As you analyse the customer experience, think about areas where you can create small but meaningful improvements. This could be in the form of faster response times, more personalised service, or simplifying the user journey.
For example, Uber may offer the same basic service as other ride-hailing apps—getting from point A to point B—but their focus on making the experience effortless (with features like automated payments, GPS tracking, and driver ratings) helps them stand out. Ratings make the platform sticky.
Actionable Step: Map out your customer’s journey from start to finish. Look for areas where you can add small enhancements that improve the overall experience—whether that’s a quicker checkout process, personalised emails, or easy-to-navigate interfaces.
3. Ensure Consistency Across All Touchpoints
It’s about offering benefits and creating experiences—it’s about doing so consistently across all touchpoints. Customers interact with your brand in various ways: through your website, in your store, via social media, and during customer service calls. Each of these touchpoints contributes to the overall experience.
Inconsistency can erode trust. If a customer has an excellent experience on your website but a frustrating one with your customer service team, their perception of your brand suffers. Ensuring consistency across all touchpoints helps build trust and reinforces the benefits you’re offering.
Actionable Step: Audit your customer touchpoints to ensure the experience is consistent and aligned with your brand’s promise. This could include staff training, improving website usability, or enhancing the personalisation of interactions across different platforms.
4. Create Personalised Experiences
As technology advances, so do customers’ expectations for personalisation. Today’s consumers expect businesses to know their preferences and tailor the experience accordingly. Personalisation strengthens the perceived benefits by making the product or service feel uniquely suited to their needs.
Amazon is a prime example of this. Their recommendation system creates a highly personalised shopping experience, showing users products that are relevant to their interests, which makes the shopping experience smoother and more enjoyable.
Actionable Step: Use customer data to create personalised experiences. This could be as simple as tailoring marketing emails to reflect a customer’s previous purchases or offering product suggestions based on their browsing history.
5. Measure and Refine the Experience Continuously
Prioritising customer benefits and experiences is an ongoing process of measuring, analysing, and refining. The market changes, customer preferences evolve, and what works today might not work tomorrow. Therefore, it’s important to continually gather feedback and adjust your approach as needed.
Actionable Step: Implement systems to collect regular feedback from customers and track key performance metrics such as customer satisfaction, retention, and Net Promoter Score (NPS). Use these insights to refine your product and improve the customer experience continuously.
Focus on What Matters
Prioritising customer benefits and experiences is the foundation of long-term success. While you may offer the same core product as your competitors, how you deliver it and the benefits your customers perceive can make all the difference. As Steve Jobs said, “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realise it themselves.”
By focusing on the value you provide and crafting a seamless, delightful experience, \you’re building lasting relationships with your customers. Ultimately, it’s these relationships that will differentiate your business and keep your customers coming back for more.
This topic is an expanded article from my book THE ‘BENEFIT’ BLUEPRINT FOR STARTUP SUCCESS Chapter 3, Question 5.
© Sameer Babbar
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Disclaimer: This is for information only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs. The author, his company, his associates, his directors, his staff, his consultants, and his advisors do not accept liability for any loss or damage, including, without limitation, any loss that may arise directly or indirectly from the use of or reliance on the information provided