Customers don't know what they want!

I believe that you heard this sentence many times, maybe a few times you were a person who said it (sadly I need to admit that I also said it a few times in past), and maybe you heard additional comments like: "They don't understand how their business works!", "Who had a such a great idea?!" and many others which mainly shows how everyone are upset because of customer's requirement.
Why people feels like this? Because they see no logic under requirement and functionality and (sometimes) even customer's explanations don't brings this desired "aha" moment.

I were there many times and I believe that many times are still in front of me and I can assume that almost everyone who have ever had to create something for a client know this very well.

So maybe it's really something with our clients? Or maybe... it's something with us?

Ok, let me tell you a short story.

visit to a dentist

I felt terrible toothache a half year ago, I took all medicines that I had in my home and I tried everything what is available without recipe. Unfortunately nothing had helped me and I decided to go to a dentists, which means that situation had to be extremally critical if I decided for such a radical steps.

When I finally walked into a doctor's office the first words which come from my mouth wasn't "Good morning" or "Hello" (sorry for not being polite), but simple: "Doctor, you have to pull my tooth."
He just smiled and asked me politely: "Can I firstly take a look at it?" Stupid question isn't it? Of course he could. I come to him with expectation that he will do it and suggest what should we do with this tooth!
But... wait... did I not told him that he should just pull the tooth?

* End of the story was happy, because after one more visit tooth was cured.

should you always want to get what you asked for?

You see my point? I (as a customer) went to a dentist (service provider) and I come to him with a problem to solve, but I didn't describe my problem at the begining, I simply proposed a solution which were (in my opinion) the best.
Was I right? No. Was I expected that dentist will do whatever I proposed without investigation what is the root of the problem? No. I went there and I expected that he will solve my problem, he's an expert and I'm paying for his knowledge. This is not me who should know the best solution, I need something and I expected that expert will help me to get it.

So why the heck I proposed a solution? Well, I'm not a psychologist and I just can presume why this kind of behavior is so typical for most of the people. We just like to know the answers, we like to prove that we are right - even without preparation (in my case without years of medicine studies) - and in case when expert will confirm our solution, we loves to tell everyone "I told you" :)

To refer to the statement from the title - yes, maybe your customers don't know what they want, don't know what will help to solve their problem and their propositions of solutions may not be the best one, but definitely your customers knows what they need and it is your job to find the reason which stands behind proposed solution and give them the best cure for their problem.