Do you ever wonder why you should know your customers?
Customers are the lifeblood of your business. They are the persons who exchange their money for the product or service that you continue to supply and provide. Are you stuck on the Ferris Wheel where - people seeking you out, they purchase, and consequently, you sell? Then you are doing business at a subsistence level and not maximizing the potential of your effort, energy and investment. This is a transactional approach to business that is outdated and can lead to business failure.
Business, like every aspect of the human condition, is a relationship between people-customers.
Who are your customers?
This question does not mean that you begin preparing a list of the names of your business patrons, but for you to get a clear idea of the demographic and psychographic of those who frequent it.
In today’s post, I will show you why knowing your customer is valuable in communicating, selling, building customer experience, and ultimately, business success.
Your customer demographics are simply verifiable information about the typical person who utilizes your products or services. The data can include their age, geographic location, income, and sex, and this is just the baseline of what you need to know. The next layer of useful information for you, as a business owner, is your customer behavior patterns or psychographics, which identify their attitudes, what they care about, and values.
1. Communicating
You have to admit that the way you speak to a 10-year-old child versus an 18-year-old young adult would differ. With a young child, you would use simpler monosyllabic words, include some definitions to ensure understanding of concepts, and reduce the level of detail you choose you would include in the exchange. This is the art of effective communication, sharing information to be received effectively by your target or audience.
The example below demonstrates why you need to know some general things about your customers. Are they predominantly male or female, their average age, level of education, and income bracket.
This type of knowledge will allow you to decide whether your early closure notice reads like this :
Like this “We are closing early on Sat March 1st for stocktaking. We will reopen tomorrow at the usual time.”Or this “Please be advised that the ABC Company will close from 8:00 am-4 pm on Saturday, March 1st, to facilitate stock taking. Our heartfelt apologies for the tremendous inconvenience caused to you, our valued customer.”
There is a stark difference between the word choice; the first has a casual tone, while the second is more formal. While there is nothing inherently wrong about employing either style, it is best to use the messaging with which your customers most identify.
2. Selling
Communicating is just the tip of the iceberg when assessing why you need to know who your customers are. Selling requires a deeper level of knowledge to influence the art of persuasion.
It is doubly important to know your customers, since the expectation of results in the form of heightened business by investing in the marketing part of the equation. Your average customer’s profile would influence aspects of your business, ranging from the choice of color on the walls on your storefront that appeals to them most to the positioning and bundling for the products and services you provide.
Knowing who your customers are will allow you to be better able to persuade them to purchase. Client knowledge enables you to create imagery and scenarios for your promotions and commercials that your customers can easily identify with because of their relevance and customer-centric nature.
3. Customer Engagement
Customer engagement are strategies used to improve the customer experience through positive interactions and deliberate efforts on the part of the business. These are wholistic strategies that integrate some marketing and customer service interventions to wow your patrons. Engaging customers appropriately for your brand and company allows you to attract and retain customers while building brand loyalty. This effort should continue to connect and develop genuinely lasting business relationships.
Your business’s success is directly proportional to much more than the appeal of your products and services to the average customer, but also to your ability to communicate, sell to, and engage them. Some studies show that engaged customers spend, on average, about 30% more than ordinary customers. Only when supply (merchandise, service, and or engagement) meets demand that the real magic happens.
Business success
By analyzing your customer profile, you will be able to stock products and offer services that meet their needs. As a result, you will benefit from minimizing spend on stock items or poorly subscribed services (since you would know what your customers are more inclined to purchase). And stretch your advertising dollars further by utilizing marketing assets that appeal to your target audience most.
Now I’d like to hear from you, do you agree with my list? Are there any other benefits that you have experienced from getting to know your customers?
Customers, do you patronize businesses where you are highly engaged more than others?
Leave a comment below.
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