The customer is always right. You've heard it a million times. But, is the customer always right for you?
Smart customer acquisition is crucial for maintaining positive relationships and providing value in the most meaningful way possible. On the other hand, dealing with a bad customer can add unnecessary stress and actually eat into your bottom line.
If you're interested in how to implement a smart customer acquisition strategy, here's what we're talking about...
“Imagine placing an ad in the newspaper for your perfect customer. How would you describe your perfect customer? What prospective customers are the most likely to buy your product or service immediately? What are the most important qualities that your ideal customer would have?”
It's absolutely vital to have a clear understanding of your ideal customer. Doing so allows you to effectively target your best customer demographic, and helps to provide the customer with the greatest amount of value you can offer. Check out Brian Tracy's article, where he explains how to break this process down, step by step, to ultimately highlight your ideal customer.
“Within the same market and industry, different primary customers may value different things: Some demand the lowest possible price, others want a dedicated service relationship, and still others are looking for the best technology or brand or other specific attribute. To complicate matters, customers often don’t know exactly what it is they value. Uncovering the full truth about their needs requires systematic research at multiple levels.”
Markets change, and so do the customers. Customer tastes will change, new technologies will replace old, unforeseen competitors will enter the market, and regulations and population demographics will evolve over time. This means you must constantly gather information on shifts in your competitive environment, especially those that might affect the behavior of your primary customer. Robert Simons's article further expands this concept and provides examples of well named brands that pivoted their concept of an ideal customer.
“Your employees are the first ones feeling the pressure from bad customers. They are also the first to show signs of problems. Learn to listen and trust them. If you hear them constantly complain about a particular person, you should take a closer look to see whether you’re dealing with a bad customer.”
Inevitably, some clients are going to be more challenging than others. There can come a point when the client relationship becomes increasingly negative and the safest option is to let the client go. A sure way of identifying a bad customer is if they try to game your system. As a company, you want to provide trials and other offers to ensure that your services are right for the client. But sadly, some customers will take advantage of these efforts. Read Pascal's article to learn more ways of identifying a bad customer.
“If professionals cannot grow their business to meet the demand created by a tipping point, what can they do?”
At some point in a business's life cycle, there's a tipping point where the company has reached the highest amount of customer demand it can handle. Not all companies can scale their business based on this amount of demand. For example, if a dentist was abruptly overwhelmed with a high number of potential clients, understandably some of the clients would have to be turned down. Within this TEDx talk, Jeff Schox further expands upon this concept and highlights the importance of selecting the right customers.
If podcasts are more your style, check out this Harvard Business Review podcast with Harvard Business School Professor, Robert Simons. Robert discusses the idea of how many companies are currently missing the mark when it comes to identifying their primary customers.
Creating a buyer persona is a great way to communicate your ideal customer to the rest of your team. Get our Buyers Persona Workbook for step by step help creating buyer persona profiles for your business.