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Getting Under Each Customer's Skin

Make them feel unique, by Robert Craven

 

Getting under the skin of your client is no easy task.  Nearly every large business tries to find out exactly what it is that makes their clients tick.  Or at least they should be trying to understand the fundamental question, ‘What is it that makes clients come and buy from you rather than from someone else?’. 

A whole industry has been created to find out all this information and make some kind of sense of the masses of data that is collected.  Endless customer surveys, mystery shoppers, internet cookies, spyware, and other techniques try to figure out how to sell more products to the poor, unsuspecting[?] clients.

One argument which I wholeheartedly agree with is put forward by Seth Godin in Purple Cow; he argues that you have to admit defeat when you rely on outside experts to tell you what your clients and potential clients think. Surely you are close enough to your most important asset, your customers, to be able to ask them what they think.  And if your relationship is such that you believe that they won’t tell you the truth then you have got yourself into a real mess!

In essence, the big question you need to know the answer to is, ‘Why should people bother to buy from us when they can buy from the competition?’.  I would suggest that there are four answers here:

• You know exactly what makes your product special/unique/different from the customer’s point of view and deliberately set out to capitalise on these differences
• You offer a unique set of advantages to the customer, but you have never really identified them yourself
• You offer the customer no unique set of advantages and you’re just lucky to still be trading
• You are about to go out of business because you are virtually giving the stuff away.

The customer is not stupid; they know that they can probably buy your product or service from someone else.  In fact, they could probably get it cheaper, and maybe even better, from someone else. 

So, why should customers buy from your business?  Why should they bother to buy from you? What is it that makes you different from the rest?  If you can’t answer these questions then you are in real trouble.

Here are some crunch questions that you should know the answer to because if you cannot answer these questions then you are probably ‘in the dark’ about how to satisfy your customers.

• Who's the product for? 
• What or who is your target market? 
• Why do people buy the product? 
• Why do they buy from you?
• What does it feel like to be one of your customers? 
• Do you delight your customers?

And some more:

• What would you have to do to be known for ‘legendary customer service’? 
• What would the effect be?
• What would happen if you sacked the bottom 50% of your customers right now?
• Could you work out twenty ways to get closer to the other 50% of your clients?  Could you get a bigger share of their wallets?
• Can you identify or create the ‘ambassadors’ for your business?
• How can you get your clients’ permission to sell to them?

 

While the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and global brands try to establish common major themes that will catch the majority (the ‘average’ consumers), the field is open for those businesses pursuing the smaller, more specific markets, the niches.  This is where the smaller business, with its ability to move quickly and nimbly, can find more than enough clients to satisfy their own business needs.

 

What Next?
So, if you are in the fortunate position where you have actually established exactly who you wish to be selling to, what should you be doing next? Please don’t get the experts in but do it yourself – getting close to your customers is too important a task to allow outsiders to do it! There are various options, some traditional, some more innovative:

Customer focus groups – take a dozen existing (or prospective, or past) clients and ask them what they think about the product/service; ask them about the competition, and ask them what your business should do to make the client want to do more business with you.

Run a survey on the Net via a discussion forum - go to one of the discussion forums on the Internet and ask the subscribers what they think.  You could ask them to fill in a questionnaire.  You could offer them a sweetener – a discount or a token of your appreciation.

Run a private dinner/event for opinion formers/leaders – invite a select group of clients to a dinner in a private dining room.  Make them feel that the dinner is exclusive.  After the meal and the networking, you can then start to subtly ‘pick their brains’.

While writing an article for a trade paper you can interview your clients and feature their comments in the article.  In the interview, you can explore how and why they buy your product.  They will feel flattered that you have asked for their opinion.

Run a conference or a seminar – invite your clients to a forum where you can meet with them and share and discuss things.

Run a special Suppliers Seminar

Run a Clients’ Day – one of the best I went to was run by the Coventry print company, Emerson Press, who put on a ‘curry and lager lunch’ at their print works. 

Why Should You Be Doing This?
Somehow you’ve got to find ways of being more than just in tune with your clients.  To get ahead of your competitors you need to understand what it is that your clients want and to demonstrate that you understand what they want and need, and be able to do it better than your competitors.

David Ogilvy On The Subject
If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think.

 Action Point
Jot down the names of your ten best customers. Then, contact each one, first by phone and then by follow-up letter – and simply tell them that you want them to know how much you appreciate the business they’ve done with you and how you respect their opinion. 

Tell them that you are trying to grow the business and wonder if they could help you by answering a few questions.  You might wish to invite them out to eat with you. 

The questions that you want answers to include:

• What do you really like about the way we do business?
• What drives you mad about the way we do business?
• If you ran my business what five changes would you make and why?
• What opportunities am I missing?
• If we are going to grow the business, what aspects must we keep and what must we lose?
• What could we do that would make you want to buy more from us?
• What do you think our other customers think about us?
•   Who do you see as our main competitors and how are they better or worse than us?

This exercise will give you plenty to think about. The benefits of sincerely understanding what it feels like to be one of your customers will pay you back many times over.  Your customers will thank you and it will make your job and the jobs of all your people much easier and much more pleasurable.  You will be able to focus your efforts on giving your customers what they really want.

About the author

 

publication details

First published in Start Your Business Magazine, Issue 32, 2009.