Your customers are unwittingly revealing what your next great product could be. They might not say, “Build this,” but if you master engaged listening, you’ll discover their needs and innovate accordingly.
If you’re a company of engaged listeners who surface customer pain points and transform those into jobs to be done, you can unlock new revenue streams by creating innovations your customers will be thrilled to buy.
Verify– our latest innovation and first-of-its-kind technology that verifies bank accounts in 15 seconds or less—is a perfect example of this approach in action.
Why Engaged Listening Matters for Product Success
At Orum, we stay connected with our customers through various touchpoints: quarterly business reviews, integration setups, customer success support, and more. Because we’re making a real connection, our customers understand that we care about their needs—in turn, they surface their underlying pain points, not just the ones we’re asking about.
Read Our Latest Orum Customer Success Story: Archie
How We Discovered the Need for “Verify
Through conversations and feedback, we noticed a recurring issue: uncertainty about whether a payment was going to a correct and valid bank account, inadvertently collecting data that suggested a trend.
This data told us that before a transaction there was a lack of information about whether or not a payment is going to the correct account (or if it’s still an open and valid account). If the account information was wrong or had been closed or frozen, our customers either lost money or dealt with expensive returns.
This insight didn’t come from direct requests for a new verification solution, but from listening and understanding the broader context of our customers’ challenges.
We could have easily said, “Wow, that sounds tough,” and gone about our business; after all, that wasn’t a problem we were solving at the time. But instead our team listened. They asked questions: What are you using now? Where is this process frustrating, inaccurate, or slow?
Steps We Followed to Identify and Create Solutions
Accumulate Data Points
Deeply understanding your customers isn’t just a job for the sales team, the product folks, or the C-suite. Collecting data from various sources—sales teams, product managers, and customer success representatives—is crucial for a deeper understanding. Engage with all touchpoints to gather diverse insights.
Avoid Recency Bias and “Big Client” Syndrome
When you hop off a call with a customer who gives you great detail about an important issue to them, it’s tempting to act on the most recent feedback, especially from major clients.
However, relying solely on this can lead to biased conclusions. Make sure you validate issues across a broader customer base so that you’re not setting yourself up to fail. Confirm that the issue is a current and recurring problem that is repeated for your customer list, your pipeline, and the market at large.
Translate Problems into Jobs to be Done
Turn identified problems into actionable “jobs to be done.” This involves understanding the core needs and developing solutions that address these needs directly and effectively.
In the case of our new product Verify, one of those jobs was: “Create more certainty before transactions, that an account to be debited or credited is, at minimum, open and valid to participate in payments. Right now.”
Determine Market Opportunity
Evaluate the impact and scale of the identified problem. In the case of Verify, the opportunity was crystal clear: The traditional bank account verification options are so slow and unreliable that failed payments cost the global economy more than $100 billion annually.
The Impact of Engaged Listening
Ultimately, it’s about staying engaged with your customer– even beyond immediate concerns– even if it isn’t a problem you’re focused on right now. By listening actively and translating insights into actionable solutions, you unlock significant potential for growth and customer satisfaction.
Want to see how engaged listening has helped Orum drive product innovations? Get in Touch Today!
