5 steps to the client’s heart. Experience of the client depends on the step the product is on.

As long as the company brings profit, the rest does not count. Until not so long ago, many businesses still hoped to operate with the rules from the industrialization era. Now more and more realize that besides efficiency, companies must also fascinate the clients. And in order to be easier measured, a scale of success related to the client’s experience was created.

Step 1 - functionality

This means that the product works, if the user realizes how to use it, although in most of cases they feel frustrated. Because functional does not also mean easy to use or foreseen for the needs of the consumer. For example, airbags were created for saving people’s lives in car accidents. But there is a little problem. Initially, they were mostly foreseen for men. When they opened, they hit the men in the chest and thus were cushioning the impact. In the case of women, they hit in the chin, projecting the head backwards, which caused many deaths.

Step 2 - utility

A product oriented to the user is 100% better than a functional one. Because, in contrast to the functional one which often needs specialty studies, this one is intuitive. This makes life easier for the user to some extent. But frustration comes from uncomfortable structuring. For example, the case of banking apps on the phone, which offer you access to the account online, but is conditioned by the application of a written request, with physical presence at the bank.

Step 3 - comfort

In this case, besides the fact that it is functional and intuitive, the product seems to be thought out for customers and everything is there where they expect it to be. The most often, the creation process is accompanied by testing client experience. A good example in this respect is the Nike website. Although they have thousands of products, they created the design of the website in such a way that it is quite easy for the customer to find and buy the product they need.

Experience of using a convenient product:

  • brings higher scores on Net Promotes Scores
  • increases sales and profit
  • develops loyalty and generates fans

Step 4 - pleasant

Pleasant products go further than covering some necessities intuitively. They become entertaining and pleasant. The product surprises the user and provokes him positive emotions, provoking a desire to use it again and again.

For example, Slack – an app for team work. Initially the app asks the user questions in a conversational style and thus selects a personalized account for them. Then it offers cute animations, jokes, and other useful and pleasant to use functions. Pleasure generates value. In only 2 years, this startup got to be $4 billion worth.

Pleasant products generate:

  • KPIs executed at high level
  • Excellent feedbacks
  • A cult of following
  • Ambassadors of the product

Step 5 - valuable

It is the highest step a product can reach. These are the products which revolutionize or change the way people think. They may change the behavior, but also the world. An example – Google Maps, which offered us the opportunity to find several convenient possibilities to get to our destinations, anywhere and anytime, and thus changed the way we travel. Or another example, Tesla cars, which bring another vision on driving and saving in general.  

A valuable product means:

  • Evangelists who tell everyone to use your products
  • The highest NPS scores
  • Emotional affinity of users towards the product
  • Solid sales which constantly grow with time.

Conclusion: good products sometimes help in covering basic needs. A single problem. Consumers have hundreds, sometimes thousands of options to cover them. Therefore, offering a good product helps you stay on the waterline. In order to advance a product from good to superb, you have to make it functional, intuitive, and comfortable. And in order to make it excellent, offer experiences which delight the users and at the same time change their life and way of seeing things. On what step are you?