Customer profiling is the first step to building successful customer relationships. There are no two ways about this…knowing your customer is the secret to business success.
When I say this I mean drawing up a customer profile in terms of: Age, gender, income, occupation, tastes, frequency of purchases, motivation for purchase and other factors that may be specific to your business.
I have had the same hair stylist for over thirteen years now and the reason I go to her is because she knows what I want, what my lifestyle is, just how much time I have on hand to take care of my crowning glory and what my strengths and weaknesses are in terms of facial features. She knows me and my hair care needs that is what matters.
Be Friendly
I was reading a short story the other day. It was about a little boy who was at the beach with his father. He came across a turtle and as soon as he touched it the turtle put his head inside his shell. The little boy began poking him with a stick but the turtle refused to stick his head out.
His father forbid him from doing that, instead he picked up the turtle and took him home where he put him by the fireplace. Soon the warmth in the room compelled the turtle to stick his head out. Moral of the story…People are like turtles…warm them up with affection and they will open up to you.
Use genuine warmth to draw customers to your venture or store. Even if the customer is angry, non-cooperative and disinterested, make a genuine effort to be warm and friendly. You never know he might just have a change of heart.
Look for Ways to Add Value
Look for ways to add value to the end deliverable and when I say this I don’t mean spend a lot of money. Helping a customer find a product that he needs instead of leaving him to scour shelves, offering to watch a child as a harried mother shops, offering to get your customer’s car out of parking while he gets his stuff out of the store are all small ways of adding to the shopping experience at your store.
Even something like referring a customer to a good tailor when you are only in the business of selling fabric is offering value. Think a step ahead and you will always be able to find things to add value in the end analysis.
Be Flexible
Exhibit a willingness to work around customer needs and specifications with regard to their budgets, tastes and preferences. Take the trouble of talking to them and finding out what they want instead of compelling them to buy what you have.
Designers who work with fabric that the customer brings in or are ready to incorporate the customer’s designs in to their outfits find more favor with people than those who want the customer to wear what’s on the rack at their store.
Make Customer Convenience Your Mission
Shopping today is more about convenience and personalization and less about affordability. People are willing to pay for both convenience and personalization. This is precisely why a kirana (small grocery store in India) finds favor in the face of competition from supermarkets.
The grocery store owner opens his store at 6 am and is open for business way up to midnight; he is happy to take orders down on the phone and will send your necessaries across no matter how small the quantity. He will remember which brand of soap you like and tell you if there’s an offer on a certain product. If you are in a hurry and pop in at his store he’ll give you goods even if you don’t have the money to pay him right away.
He’s teaching you lessons in customer convenience which is his mission…make it yours today!
Automate Payments or Offer Options
The best part about making a purchase is having lots of options to make payments and if there’s automation then that’s even better. Offer your customers the option to pay:
- By Credit Card or Debit Card
- By Cheque
- PayPal
- Cash on Delivery
Brand with Wheels
I have written an entire blog post on how brands with wheels can make a difference to a business. Let me tell you about a recent experience that I had and how brands with wheels really do make a mark in an intensely crowded market.
I always get my clothes tailored at a certain store but recently found that the tailor always delayed delivery and gave me a poor fitting despite my numerous rounds made first to collect my clothes and later to get them altered and get them back from him. I was fed up with the amount of time, money and effort that I was spending on getting my clothes stitched from him.
I then came across a lady who offered customized tailoring and got in touch with her through her page on Facebook. I spoke to her over the phone, met up with her once, picked out an outfit based on my budget and preferences with regard to color, embroidery and the like, gave her my measurements and was pleasantly surprised that she always delivers outfits at the customer’s doorstep. Though I needed some alterations she was more than happy to deliver it when she made her next round of deliveries on my side of the town.
Am I going back to her? Yes!
Keep them Posted
Let your customers know about the latest happenings at your store or venture. Strike a relationship with them through a Facebook page or tweeting on Twitter to let them know about your latest collection, a discount offer or a contest you may have organized.
Let them hear about your achievements too. So if you were featured as one of the top 10 social ventures in your city then scan a copy of the magazine that featured you and post it on your wall. Watch how quickly the word spreads and the kudos and compliments keep coming in.
Keeping customers in the loop is all about making them feel involved as far as your progress goes. They after all contributors to you being there and they should know about how the world perceives you and your efforts too!
Stand for Something
We live in times that are plagued with a number of problems and social issues like poverty, education to marginalized groups, neglect of the differently abled and businesses that set out to support a social cause tend to win more brownie points than those that are simply driven by profit.
It might be a simple move like an hotelier supporting budding artists by allowing them to display at his restaurant or a courier service that employs only handicapped people or the chocolatier whose chocolates are crafted by the blind. These are just some instances of businesses that stand for something and as such find favor with the public on account of their association with that cause.
If you can’t go all the way you could donate some part of your earnings or products to a charity like giving away surplus food to the nearest soup kitchen instead of throwing it away.
