Innovation and the Customer
The popular press loves to talk about disruptive innovation—especially big, audacious, trajectory-changing innovations driven by advances in AI and new computing technologies. But significant sustaining innovations occur in the devices and products we use everyday—this type of innovation can largely go unnoticed. I’d like to address that today by highlighting an innovation I’ve stumbled across that has had a positive impact on me personally—innovation in trimmer string replacement. That’s right, we’re going to talk about trimmer string today!
If you’re a homeowner or have done any landscaping or yard maintenance, you know what a pain in the a$$ it is to replace the string in a string trimmer. Winding new string into the spool and then getting the spool back onto the head is an act of physical dexterity and hand-eye coordination that’s best left to professionals.
Sure, there have been attempts at incremental innovation to make this process easier, but most of those improvements provide minimal value-add because ease of use is traded for increased cost and/or waste. Stihl’s self-contained string replacement modules—dubbed “AutoCut”—are a perfect example. Yes, replacement is easy, but if the string breaks off close to the head in mid-roll, an $8 module becomes trash in an instant. If I look back on my 35 years of home ownership and my experience with multiple brands of string trimmers, let’s just say that the string trimmer is my least favorite lawn maintenance utensil.
Enter EGO. In a fit of frustration after breaking the string on my Stihl FSA 56 mid-roll for the second time in one afternoon, I visited my local ACE Hardware store and asked for alternative solutions. The helpful hardware person directed me to their new shiny EGO display and told me the Power+ ST1623T was the answer to my prayers. The unit purportedly automatically feeds out new string without manual intervention and has a feature called Powerload, which automatically winds new string into the trimmer head. Ever the skeptic, I bit on the pitch and purchased the EGO unit, but expected that the promises of outsized power, long battery life, ease of use, and fast, efficient, headache-free string replacement were overblown.
To my pleasant surprise, my skepticism has turned into enthusiastic support for my new trimmer and EGO in general. You see, this seemingly innocuous innovation EGO calls Powerload is a game-changer. An innovation that puts all other string trimmer options to shame. Yes, EGO’s 16” string trimmer has lived up to the promises of power, battery life, and ease of use, but it’s Powerload that has me hooked. So to change the line after 14’ of line has been used up, you simply cut an additional 14’ of line, insert the new line into the head, ensure there’s 7’ of line on either side, and press the Powerload button. Whallah! In a matter of seconds, the head spins in reverse, grabs the line and automatically winds the spool. After the first time using this feature, I was awestruck. I stood back and exclaimed: “huh, now that’s innovation!”
So what’s the moral of this story? Innovation doesn’t have to be big and grandiose. Innovation should, however, have a positive impact on the customer experience. Innovation should remove friction in the value chain of product use. Too often, manufacturers and service providers tout product “innovations” that add friction in the customer experience value chain and are not value-additive. They “innovate” for the sake of trying to say ahead of their competition and neglect customer experience.
Opportunities for innovation and incremental improvements are all around us. If you’re thinking about innovation at your company, put your focus on the customer, not the competition. True innovation adds value to the customer. Add value to the customer and you’ll beat the competition.
Congrats EGO!
