The absolute essence of being customer-centric on the Web is a relentless focus on saving customers time and money.
In the Internet world, being customer-centric is not a like-to-do. It is a must-do. On the Web, only the customer-centric will survive. Why? Because on the Web the customer is in control. Offline marketing treats customers as if they are sitting in the back seat. They are entertained; advertised and marketed at. The Web puts the customer’s hands on the steering wheel and their feet on the pedals.
On the Web, the customer is no longer king-the customer is dictator! The customer is impatient, the customer won’t wait. The customer wants it now, in their language, on their terms-at a good price.
If you take the airline industry as an example; the optimal customer has only hand luggage. They book online. They arrive on time. They walk out on the tarmac and walk up stairs to search for an unassigned seat. They get off the flight quickly. They get a cheap flight.
This system works well on many, many fronts. You need less experienced and skilled staff. There is less luggage handling. The plane fills up faster because back and front stairs are used and seats are not assigned. There is a faster turnaround of planes.
If you are a minute late, if you have lots of baggage, if you are in any way an exception, you are made to pay. If it’s raining outside you get wet. If it’s cold outside you get cold. If there is any sort of hitch, you’ve got a problem.
Every time you add to an environment, you add complexity and cost. This is true of running a website or an airline. More features and more complexity means more cost and more time lost. When we design for the exception, you inhibit the rule. Fewer features and less complexity means more money and time saved.
If you want to make A as simple as possible, you must either stop doing B, or hide B and thus make it more complex. You can’t make A and B as simple as possible together.
What really matters to your customers? Not what some fancy focus group or half baked marketing research say matters.
The question still is: What really, really matters to your customers?