# Customer Feedback By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-05-02 There is a story regarding Henry Ford that concludes with him saying something to the effect that had he asked customers what they wanted, they would have told him faster horses. The advent of the mass-produced, affordable automobile didn’t come about due to customer feedback. They wanted faster horses. It came about because a person had a vision of how things could be different. A great deal of attention is paid to collecting and analyzing customer feedback. The key to effectively using customer feedback is understanding where it can be beneficial and where it is unlikely to be constructive. Customer feedback is essential for understanding views on current products and services. It does not help one come up with new strategic directions. Customers, in the aggregate, are locked into the current reality. They know what they like and dislike about the current situation. They won’t tend to make the leap from horses to cars. This is true for anything visionary. It’s true for one’s boss as well. As a worker, one’s boss is one’s customer. If one is a visionary worker, one should expect that one’s boss will continually ask for faster horses. This can be frustrating. Creative problem-solving and vision put one outside the comprehension of most people most of the time. Being able to make progress in such a situation requires strength. People will eventually understand, but it will only be after one’s vision is successfully enacted. Ask for customer feedback if one wants to know how one is currently doing. If one wants to radically redefine the future, asking for customer feedback will only result in the call for faster horses, not cars. #### Related Items [[Feedback]] [[Progress]] [[Future]] [[Vision]] [[Customers]]