2023 Post Sprint Contest [zhaowu share].
"You have more than one customer, and in the same way, you're not the only option for your customers. Convenience, warmth, necessity, you can't meet all the needs of your customers (or customers don't want to get service from just one provider, which is usually a good spending habit), which means that you have to not only strive for your customers' business, but also be compared to other service providers, which may not be fair.
Consider the following example: Restoration Hardware (RH) and IKEA are both well-known furniture retailers, but there aren't many similarities between them. IKEA is known for its affordable** and warehouse sales (many stores have Swedish meatball shops and childcare facilities), and its furniture is sleek and elegant, but it's no secret that it's not so easy to put it all together according to the fitting instructions.
RH has transformed from a seller of major high-end home accessories (antique doorknobs, lamps, and the like) to a consumer brand that sells not only furniture, but also home furnishing services. At 60,000 square feet (5,400 square meters), the RH store's oversized hypermarket is a huge "gallery" with a curated store with everything from the Buenos Aires Villa or the Antwerp Canal House. The handsome and beautiful salesperson walks around with an iPad in his hand and can provide information to customers at any time, whether it is about wood ** or decoration services.
The two services have very different design styles and very different customer experiences, but the customers are not necessarily two different people. The customers of these two retailers may be the same person, but the same customer expects very different from each retailer.
There are many examples: for example, the duel between Costco and Wegmans. Fans of both revere both supermarkets as if they were a certain culture.
Costco sells daily essentials in bulk, such as 64-ounce (about 1,893 milliliters) of oregano per can, 48 rolls of toilet paper per pack, and 5 pounds (about 2.) per bag27 kg) (and also a fair share of high-end food, such as lobster tails), customers must bring their own bags or boxes (or pick up some old boxes when leaving, or buy Costco's oversized, sturdy bags) and pack them themselves. The shop is clean and tidy, and food samples are provided, which will save a lot of money. But if Costco's razor doesn't have your preferred brand, or the size of the sanitary napkin doesn't fit you, you're out of luck. Still, customers of all income levels want to grab a bargain here.
Wegmans Supermarket is a supermarket chain located in upstate New York, which is very popular with high-end customers due to its well-furnished shops, comfortable lighting, and considerate service. There are many small food shops in the supermarket, so you can browse the shops and eat snacks just like you would in the market. Shoppers at Wegmans don't buy bulk, they don't care about ultra-low prices**, they care about quality, tricks and insights that Costco doesn't have. And they don't have to worry about packing their own stuff at all!
These dual-personality clients will present you with two potential problems. One problem is that you get the wrong competitors. There is more likely that IKEA and RH will have overlapping customer bases than they are with discount furniture companies like Value City Furniture, and therefore more competition between them.
The second problem, and one of the more dangerous, is that sometimes we try too hard to meet the needs of customers who are simply not profitable, or simply not suitable for you. There's something worse than losing a customer, and that's going out of your way to keep a customer that costs you money. Any service design requires a certain level of flexibility – after all, the perfect customer is different. But once you start doing things that conflict with your brand, your strategy, and your designed service in order not to disappoint your customers, it means you're going to let yourself down.