It's Friday once again, we made it! I hope you all are ready for the weekend. I'm hoping to spend some much needed time with my family and just relax. I think we all need a little more of that, don't you? Anyways, today as I was reading through some articles, I found one from
Forbes.com that discussed how to determine who your key customers are. After reading the post, I figured this was great info any business owner would love to know. Here's what the article had to say...
Take Inventory
Now, I know what you're thinking. But this is actually a different kind of inventory. In this first step, the writer suggests taking inventory of your customers. In this process you'll be making a list of each and every customer group. This is also referred to as market segmentation.
Segment Customers
Once you made your list, it's then time to breakdown each group further, into segments:
- Key Customers: "These are the people and groups that you see align perfectly (or almost perfectly) with your work. These customers always return to you." Key customers are your go-to people. The ones that have tried probably every product or service you offer. They're also the ones that quickly hop on social media to leave your business a great review. This list is probably pretty short, but the quality is what makes it!
- Important Customers: "These are the people and groups that you see have a good degree of alignment with your work. These are good customers and loyal to the company and the brand." Important customers make several purchases from you but differ from "keys" as they can be distracted by good deals elsewhere. However, they tend to come back.
- Customers: These are the consumers that only partially align with your work - somewhere on middle ground, which is actually where most of your customers will land. "They shop for your products and services because the price is reasonable for the quality. They will leave a negative review if they receive really bad service, but most give your company the benefit of the doubt."
- Difficult Customers: This group is only somewhat aligned with your work. "These customers are looking for a commodity — they may always haggle on the price. They cost you a lot of your time and effort in dealing with problems and complaints, but they may barely buy anything from you." Aside from the trouble of being costly regarding your time and effort, they may also try to lure you with the prospect of new business if you take care of them, but rarely see those offers through.
- Not Customers: These folks just barely align with your work. They may have made a random purchase or two but that's about it. "They have no interest in your company or loyalty to your products and services."
Customer Avatar
The last step for determining key customers is to create a customer avatar. This doesn't mean you create an actual cartoon model of your customer to sit in the corner of your store, however that's not a bad idea considering it is Spooky Season after all. I'm kidding, but seriously, the avatar is your key customer's persona. "Personas define your key customer's demographic information, challenges and pain points, goals and values, and objections and opinions."
I hope these points help you identify your key customers and help you grow that list even more. Additionally, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to identify and increase your key customer base! Let us know in the comments below. Take care, everyone!
