Intuit Case

1. What are the mechanisms by which Intuit hears the "voice of the market"?

- Annual customer survey, asking which Quicken's features consumers us and don't use, like and don't like.

- Compiles data from the customers who call I with problems or write in with solutions.

- Runs focus group usually consisting of people who aren't Quicken's customers, but ought to be according to Intuit.

- They also test the program relentlessly. They test it at a much earlier stage of product development by getting in experienced Quicken users to see if this is going to confuse them in any ways. By getting in first time users and observing their facial reactions to particular screens. They feel every glitch; every momentary hesitation is their fault.

- Follow-me-home program. Wherein Quicken buyers from local stores are to let an Intuit representative observe them when they first use it, so as to see where they find difficulties and hence take the feedback and observations to improve the software.

Information from all these sources flows directly to the product development team (who is working on the next version of Quicken), working on the documentation department (which regularly updates the manual, and the marketing team.

2. Intuit has only two salespeople for a $33 million operation. How do they do it?

Because they are so confident about their software and how easy it is to use, that they feel that their satisfied customers are their largest sales force.

To keep the customers satisfied, a quarter of Intuits 175 sales force, which is 40 people are their technical support team.

Their motto is "Intuit stands or falls with what happens in tech support. Do whatever you need to do to satisfy the customer".

To drive home the importance of tech support and to keep the team motivated, thank you letters from customers are read a loud and framed. Even the senior most people (the president) take customer calls and replies to their problems.

3. What is the key to their success?

- Listening to and observing the customers constantly on how they like/dislike Quicken and then relaying the information down to the various teams so that the new version of Quicken is better and more easier to use.

- Keeping the employees motivated and listening to their inputs and feedback. A top manager takes out an employee every month for lunch to get for the same. It's very gratifying for the employees.

- Complete analysis of the tech support team is shared with the entire organization. On Monday morning meetings the 1st four numbers they go through