Customers are not always right | Daily #154

Sometimes I truly think that customers don't know what they want. We all know the famous lines.

Customer is always right

Customer knows what they want

Customer is the expert about what they need

Well, I disagree to a certain degree. The customer does know what their problems are. They complain about it. Search for online solutions or answers. You easily find examples on Twitter and Quora.

But they usually don't understand how solutions work.
Sometimes it's even worse. They complain about the issue, but once a solution is available, they don't accept it. Why? Cause the solutions requires them to change as well.

We see this often in health-related issues. For example, somebody is out of shape and they complain about it. I can't do X and Y physically. Then somebody comes with a training regime and a diet. But they don't want it cause they need to change their habits.

Another example is designs. There are always people who complain about design changes. For example, everybody complained about the bezels of their smartphone cause they were too big. Then a solution came along to put the sensors, speakers, microphones, cameras in a notch. Loads of people complained about it not looking good, blah blah blah. After a year, the majority of the people have a notch on their phones.

Well, what happened? Did smartphones die out after? No, they got accustomed to it and realized that it was better than big bezels. But they don't like the idea of changing themselves to it.

They realize that they have certain problems. They want to be healthier, want a better-looking phone and probably other things. But they don't understand that all solutions have comprised. They want the perfect solution without requiring them to adjust to it. That's impossible.

How can you solve a problem without changing something?
You can't.

Sometimes customers don't understand what the solutions are. If they complain, it is either cause the solution is garbage, or they haven't gotten accustomed to it yet. Sometimes it is the latter.