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Customers are notoriously bad at describing their needs.

They tell confusing stories, share irrelevant details, and often fail to reveal important data. Often, customers just don't know what they want.

This makes it incredibly difficult to make improvements, or create new products, services, and solutions.

Customer service author and keynote speaker, Chip Bell, has a new book that addresses this issue head-on. The book is called Inside Your Customer's Imagination, and it contains five secrets for working with your customers to create breakthrough solutions.

Bell and I had a chance to discuss his new book, and he shared some fun stories and fantastic insight!

Here are a few of the topics we covered:

• Why do customers struggle to describe what they want?

• What is customer co-creation?

• What makes something a breakthrough product, service, or solution?

• How can multiple perspectives lead to new insights?

• Why do we need to ask better questions?

Bell covered a lot more during our conversation. You can watch the full, 20 minute interview or read some of the highlights below.

Why do customers struggle to describe what they want?

Asking customers their needs sounds pretty straightforward. The challenge is customers notoriously struggle to describe what they really want.

Bell explains that breakthrough ideas are so new, customers don't know they exist. "Nobody wanted a bicycle, nobody wanted a fax machine," he explained. It's only afterwards, when something new and useful is available, customers are glad to have it.

This creates an opportunity for savvy marketers, customer service professionals, and other customer experience experts to work with customers to uncover hidden needs.

Go to the :47 mark to hear Bell explain more.

What is co-creation, and how does it help develop new ideas?

Bell described customer co-creation as a process of including customers in product development. The idea is to work with them, so that their perspective is included.

"Customer experience is already co-created," said Bell. "We make up the experience with the customer, but we don't always treat the customer as if they're an equal partner." Inviting customers to partner with you in the creation process opens up new opportunities.

For instance, my Customer Service Tip of the Week email was co-created with a client. We were brainstorming ways to reinforce a training program I had just delivered and stumbled upon an idea to send a weekly tip via email. It was easy to set up and worked so well that now anyone can subscribe for free.

"We're creating with the customer," said Bell. "Not just on behalf of or for the customer."

You can hear more at 2:27 in the conversation.

What makes something a breakthrough product, service, or solution?

It's something completely new, or a new feature that's added to something that already exists.

Bell told a story about working with a pizza company, where members of a customer focus group unexpectedly brought up the pizza box as an opportunity to do something different. Customers came up with a variety of examples such as turning the box into a puzzle or a Halloween mask.

Another story was the origin of the Frisbee. Go to the 6:12 mark of the interview to hear Bell describe the unusual way the Frisbee was invented.

How can getting multiple data sources paint a clearer picture?

Bell shared a story from the book about a hotel general manager who bought breakfast for local taxi cab drivers once per quarter. The breakfast was a focus group designed to uncover what hotel guests were saying about their experience.

The general manager realized that taxi drivers often heard unvarnished feedback about a guest's hotel stay on the ride from the hotel to the airport. This feedback might never be shared with an hotel employee or in a survey, but was readily offered in a casual conversation during the cab ride.

Bell calls this "eccentric listening," where you try to gather information from unusual perspectives. "You're talking about out of the ordinary questioning," said Bell.

He shares more about the concept at 9:05.

Why do we need to ask better questions?

Many of the questions we routinely ask customers have lost meaning.

"How are you today?" is almost always answered with "fine" or "good," without the other person revealing how they are really doing. Likewise, a cashier asking, "Did you find everything alright?" expects customers to say "Yes," and is flummoxed by anyone who answers "No."

Bell and I shared amusing examples about staying in hotels, where "How was your stay?" has become one of those rote questions.

"We treat questions like, 'How was your stay?' as a greeting," said Bell. It's not really an interrogatory. It's got a question mark, but it's not really a question. It's like another version of 'hello.'"

Go to 12:40 to see more from this great exchange.

Get the Book

Bell is an accomplished storyteller, and his skills are on full display in Inside Your Customer's Imagination.

The book is filled with amusing anecdotes, backed up by practical suggestions and advice you can put to use right away. The book is currently available on Amazon in hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook.

If you're looking for more business books or interviews like this one, check out my Recommended Reading list. It contains my recommended customer service and customer experience books, along with exclusive interviews with authors such as Shep Hyken, Jeanne Bliss, and Matt Dixon.