Once We Have The Problems, The Real Work Can Begin

Yelp is great for reviews, but it’s gold for research.

Where else can you find such timely, honest and accurate insight
into the user experience? Where else can you gain such an intimate perspective
about what really happens in a store, at a home or on a job site?

Recommendation websites are veritable smorgasbords for
cutting straight to the heart of the many problems customers are waking up with
every morning.

I just read two pages of angry reviews from customers of a
landscaping company. Fascinating stuff. One woman said she sent five emails and
still couldn’t get through to
schedule an estimator to come to her house.

That’s huge.

Because once we have the problems, the real work can begin.

By defining the problems, we’re forcing our brains to flex the
muscle that solves them. We’re unlocking our ability to think without thinking.
It’s just how we’re wired. Humans can’t think about problems without thinking
about solutions.

Which means, we’re free to solve the problems clients can’t
see past. We can spend two hours on a review website blowing our own minds.

Because we’re not encumbered by the day to day things that create
those problems in the first place.

If I was trying to approach that industry as an innovator or
supplier or consultant or vendor, that’s where I would start.