Understanding The Customer
A business needs to demonstrate an understanding of their existing and potential customers. Why?
1 - A customer comes to a business because they want or need something. Understanding their motivations and what brought them to this point really helps you find more like them.
2 - A customer you already have a relationship with is easier to maintain a relationship with and sell to than one you don’t know at all.
It could be argued that a small business has more face-time thus a better understanding of their customer; equally that large businesses have greater resources available for research and insight generation. But regardless of a business’ size, understanding the existing customer results in better communication and better service. Retention is almost always cheaper and easier than acquisition, so as a general rule to be successful, priority #1 is keeping the customers you have. (Existing customers can usually become more valuable through up/cross-selling, referrals and repeat business too). It’s simple really - a great product backed by fabulous customer service is the easiest way to retain a customer and create an advocate.
However, no matter how great your relationship with the customer, loved your product or low your churn is, any business is going to need new customers sometimes.
So let’s take a look at how understanding the ones you have helps you get more.
We have the ability to talk to millions of Kiwis and billions of people in other countries if you have the budget to pay for it, but simply reaching eyeballs doesn’t equal customers. Logically, the more people you speak to, the better your chances, but if your message is wrong then you could well be doing your brand more harm than good, and spreading that damage far and wide.
So how do you ensure your message is on point? Firstly, tell a story about your product! Tell customers why you make it, why you love it, tell them why they’ll love it and show them that you know what’s important to them and how your product fits in with that. Are they business women who don’t have time to do the ironing or pet owners battling clinging fur? Does your creaseless shirt save them valuable hours or your non-stick pant suit save them workplace embarrassment? Working through all the potential storylines for different customers might seem complex at first but as you get the hang of looking at your business through your customer’s eyes, you’ll find there’s plenty to say. As for making sure you’re talking to the right people, targeting is the way to go - it’s a no-brainer to focus on people that most likely suffer from the problem you are solving. In the first example a good place to start would be travellers and parents and in the second, professionals with pets (and/or kids!). Refine from there with other insights (gender, location, income, retargeting etc).
Start the process of understanding your customer by answering the below – you can do it on your own, but even better, do it with someone who works on the front line and interacts with customers regularly – customer service / reception / shop floor / social media manager, and then jot down anything else that comes to mind, including questions you end up wondering about while you discuss these:
Does your ideal customer know about you already?
Are there age/gender/social status/affluence/geographical or lifestyle elements to the customer’s profile?
Is your product/service a necessity or a luxury for your customer?
Are there similar products already in use by your customer?
What is your customer’s definition of value? Is it giving them more time, costing less, making them stand out in the crowd? And how does your product give value to the customer?
If your answers describe a few different types of customer then great! You have the foundations of marketing personas. However, simply having a conversation and (importantly) doing research based on these and any other questions you’ve come up with during the process will generate insights – and if you use them well, these insights will vastly improve your ability to attract new, ideal customers to your business. Better yet, the process will spark ideas for refinement or expansion to your product or service, allowing your business to test and learn so it can grow in profitable directions.
Five by Five offers a $1,000 four hour Marketing Workshop where we work through your business and product offering with you, help you identify and understand your existing and ideal customers and then work through the resulting insights to identify opportunities for your marketing and your business.
If you’d like to chat about booking a session, click here to email or call 021565674.