Businesses all over the world are customers driven. The old saying that the customer is king hasn’t changed. As a matter of fact, the customer’s empire is increasing every wake of day.
Without a scalable path to customers, even the best products die a silent death. To experience a sustainable business in the new economy, you must intentionally pay attention to your customers.
Focus on their needs
The customers are always attracted to businesses that demonstrate that they understand their problems, and have created remarkable ways to address them. Remember, the customers care about their problems, and not about your solution.
There are so many choices available to the customers. To use your product, they have to fire someone else. The customers wouldn’t want to settle for anything less than what they want. Instead of less, they always want more of what would address their immediate and future needs and expectations.
Know what they love about you
What do your customers love most about you? To some customers, it goes beyond your physical offerings or what can be seen with the eyes. They patronize you because of how you (and your product or service) make them feel.
If you make your customers feel good about themselves (as doing business with you), they’ll keep coming. It pays to think the way your customers think by putting yourself in their shoes.
Your ability to know what your customers need, meeting those needs, and your relationship with your customers could be your utmost competitive advantage.
See them as your biggest investors and strategic partners
Your customers are your best and biggest investors. In case you may have forgotten, an average customer has a huge lifetime value. Your business success can only grow when you recognise your customers as the investors that they are, and the value they bring to the table.
Similarly, your customers are critical strategic business partners. When you recognise them as stakeholders that they are, they become more committed to your business growth and prosperity.
Your customers are your best business development managers, marketers, advertising agents, hype men, and the like. If there are critical stakeholders you have in business, they are the number one. They work with you to make your business successful.
Turn them to your fans!
When you create value for customers, getting positive referrals from them comes easily. They would go to any length to tell others about you. The highest form of marketing comes when you create a community or a tribe, where your customers are your best marketers and fans. So, ride on the success stories of your customers, and make fandom of them.
Why not reach out to a cross-section of your satisfied customers, and ask them to refer their friends or family members who might benefit from your product or service. Nothing will come to us in life without our asking.
The customers always know if you value them or not. Thus, making your customers happy will not only keep the revenue coming, but you’ll also have army of men and women who are crazy about your business and what it represents. Remember, satisfied customers make repeat purchases, and repeated profitable sales are the lifeblood of any business.
About the Writer:
Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist, and the author of BUSINESS SENSE, and ON BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR. He maintains a personal blog, where he shares proven business ideas and principles for SMEs.
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