Lost Skill of Listening to your Customers

When we talk about new product ideas , listening to your customer is said to be one of the best sources ....

I was sitting in a consumer durables shop discussing the pros and cons of buying a water purifier, when a customer came in and asked for a water cooler (the picture on the right). After a lot of discussion on various options and prices, he decided to buy a Voltas Cooler.

Then he asked if was there a option of having a purifier combined with a water cooler, I thought it be very logical, some company must have such a product. The dealer responded saying , the manufacturers of both these products are different companies, so what you can do is buy two of them separately and combine them.....

This conversation would have slipped out of mind had it not been for another customer who came in after ten minutes and asked the for the same combination, Purifier+Cooler?

I thought it could not be a coincidence that two people were asking for the same combination. I felt this was a new product idea combining two products purifier and a water cooler. But neither the cooler manufacturers nor the purifiers, have developed such a product yet.

Are we listening to the customer. I had heard in a few companies where the managers were forced to make one market atleast once a month so that they remained in touch with ground realities and also know the pulse of the customer....

Is the customer asking for a lot , I don't think, what he is asking for is "Pure Cold Water" , and we still believe to see the situation in a compartmentalized way..???