Is this the most stupid question to ask?
Someone from the Barclaycard research centre rang me today doing some customer research. It is great to know they take the customer experience seriously – many of the questions were around my experience with the brand. But then they dropped this corker, not once, but twice.
To what extent do your other credit card providers offer innovative products
How important is it to you that your credit card provider offers innovative products
How on earth did those questions get through and on to the list? What is an “innovative product” when talking about credit cards or financial services? What is an “innovative product” to Joe Public? Maybe I can relate to an iPhone as such, but my credit card? Product innovation is hardly something that you or I consider when we pull a credit card out of the wallet.
“Innovative products” are something that marketeers talk about, they are not in the credit card users lexicon.
Hear hear! I first noticed the use of the word “Product” in this manner when working at a big banking client, but I’ve also heard it at insurance companies as well.
Not only do people not think innovation when they think of these companies, they don’t even think product at all. I use my credit card to buy products. I buy insurance to protect my products in case of disaster. But, IMO, those companies aren’t in the product business themselves.
Maybe it’s just a terminology issue, but when it leaks out into calls like the one you received today, this sort of thinking becomes problematic…