Collecting customer insights for improved product innovation

Industry: Construction, landscape, and agriculture

Client: Global manufacturer of equipment for construction, landscape, and agriculture needs

Challenge

The client wanted their customer base to be more involved in the design and development of products. More direct customer feedback was needed, and the client wanted to establish a way to easily collect insight from their target audience on what was working and ways to improve established and upcoming products. They wanted consistency when collecting information and needed to formulate a method that was easily repeatable in order to get the full value from the research process. 

Solution

Prime46 helped to design and refine discussion guides for field research, managed respondent recruitment, conducted on-site customer research and established a methodology for analyzing collected data. Working closely with the client Prime46 built out a system to provide statistical validation to field research findings through deployment of relevant survey methods. Additionally, Prime46 partnered with the client in establishing customer feedback protocols in prototype and pre-launch equipment field testing to confirm that new products would successfully meet customer needs prior to full market launch.

Results

Using this new system of collecting customer feedback, the client established:

• Product improvements with direct customer feedback – With customers involved in the process, the manufacturer has validated knowledge about what the customer actually needs, and is able to improve on current products so they meet those needs.
• Stronger customer relationships – Customers feel important and empowered when they are a part of the design and development process.
• Improved product quality – Most product issues are now caught prior to launch, reducing frequency of returns, warranty claims and bad reviews post-launch.
• Accelerated growth – With formalized customer feedback processes, products better meet customer needs, increasing likelihood for acceptance, greater market penetration and earlier product adoption.

Successes

As the relationship with the client continues to grow, Prime46 has been invited to consult on customer, market and industry research for other departments within the organization. The research methods and protocols used in product design and development are being applied to other areas of the client’s business.