I am currently re-reading the book “Steal These Ideas: Marketing Secrets that Will Make You a Star” by Steve Cone (Bloomberg Press, 1 September 2005, ISBN #1576601919, 204 pages), which I featured in a previous post.
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I think the simple concepts provided in the chapter on “The Three Most Important Customer Lessons You Will Ever Learn” are important in helping a home or small business owner understand their customers. The author puts forward three lessons about customers, and these are:
- People renew the way they are acquired. The reason customers return to you is they want to sample again the experience your product or service gave them. Hence, it is important that you give them consistency (or at least be close to the original). McDonald’s succeed because they give their customers the same burgers they have been accustomed to and grown to love. Diverting or radically changing your product may alienate customers; afterall, it is no longer the product that they fell in love with. For example, constant design changes led to the decline of Ford Thunderbird, compared to Chevy Corvette that more or less stayed true to the original design.
- The most critical time in a new customer’s relationship with your business is the first week after the initial purchase. New customers need assurance that they did the right thing in buying your product or service. You will most likely create a stronger impression if you follow-up with the customer, via email or postcard, thanking them for the transaction. But this needs to be done immediately after the transaction. The author recommends a five business day window of opportunity. This is especially critical if the customer had a negative experience with your business.
- Forget complicated clusters and demographics. For the author, there are only five customer groups: the evangelists who love you; those who buy occasionally; price is right or those who buy in response to a price offer; negative or those who had a bad experience purchasing from you; and those who have no clue that they actually dealt with you (they received your product as a gift or bought from you by mistake).
Simple concepts, but understanding these lessons can change your views about your customers and how best you need to approach them.
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