One of my favorite parts of this job is helping organizations make decisions based on a deeper understanding of people.
Sometimes that means asking better questions to get closer to how people actually think, feel, and make decisions.
One place where I've seen that make a real difference is customer barrier research.
One of the questions I hear most often from clients is: "We know the barriers. Now which ones should we solve first?"
At first glance, the answer seems simple: focus on the biggest ones. But that's not always the strategy that will earn you the most customers.
Imagine you're responsible for growing a bank's checking account business.
You commission a survey to understand why consumers aren't opening a primary checking account with your bank. The results come back looking something like this:
- Monthly fees (56%)
- Low interest rates (53%)
- Poor mobile app (49%)
- Too few ATMs (43%)
- Lack of trust (39%)
Most organizations would look at that list and conclude they should:
- Eliminate monthly fees
- Offer more competitive interest rates
- Invest in a better mobile app
It seems like a logical approach. But, first, it assumes the biggest barriers create the biggest opportunity. In reality, not every barrier has the same power to change behavior. The impact of resolving a barrier isn't determined by how many people mention it – it's determined by how many new customers that resolution is likely to create.
Second, it assumes all barriers can be evaluated independently.
Think about yourself. If you were considering opening a new primary checking account, chances are you wouldn't switch because of one improvement alone.
Maybe you'd need no monthly fees and more ATMs.
Or maybe it's higher interest rates and confidence that the bank is trustworthy.
Maybe you'd need all of the above.
Customers don't just have barriers. They have a set of requirements that need to be met before they're willing to act. The challenge isn't simply identifying barriers – it's understanding which combination of improvements will satisfy those requirements.
That's where traditional barrier analysis starts to break down. It tells you what's standing in the way. It doesn’t tell you the path to conversion – the combination of improvements that will actually turn a prospect into a customer.
The biggest barrier isn't always the biggest opportunity.
Sometimes resolving a less common barrier unlocks more customers because it either reaches a different group of consumers or helps more people reach the point where their requirements have been met.
That's why at Bovitz we use Barrier Resolution Optimization.
Rather than simply ranking the biggest barriers, Barrier Resolution Optimization identifies the combination of improvements most likely to create the greatest increase in customer acquisition by focusing on three things:
- The impact of barrier resolutions – not just the prevalence of barriers
- The full set of improvements required before a customer will convert
- The combination of resolutions that unlocks the greatest number of potential customers
When resources are limited – and they always are – the question isn't which barriers you can solve. It's which combination of improvements will generate the greatest return on your investment. The result is often a very different roadmap than simply working down the list of the most frequently mentioned barriers.
Instead of asking, "What are our biggest barriers?"
A better question is: "Which combination of improvements will earn us the most new customers?"
That's the kind of question that leads to smarter product, marketing, and customer experience decisions because it starts by listening more deeply to what consumers are telling us.
I'd love to hear from others. What business questions have you found required a deeper understanding of people before the best strategy became clear?
And for fun, here's a pic of me in the back room of a focus group facility many years ago, doing one of my favorite parts of the job – getting closer to how people think, feel, and make decisions.
