Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Your Customers Worth

We often forget the real value of our customers and the long term impact that they have on our business operations. In most businesses, unfortunately, the focus is solely on the individual sale that is attained within a specific time of reference. Businesses focus strictly on the point of sale for the most part and not on the customer.

What we seem to forget as business operators, managers, etc is that the customer represents on going income and in most cases the customer life cycle can extend far into the future. If the customer recieves expectation fulfillment from the experience that they have with your business, your services or the product/products that you offer, there is roughly a 70% chance that that particular customer will return and make another purchase of a similar kind. The length of time between purchases would depend on your products life cycle and the customers rate of use.

It has been my experience that when the customer returns they ussually add to the list of product or services that they originally purchased and broaden the customers buying circle. So the question here is how are you managing your customers experiences and in what way do you evaluate the worth of that customer.

In recessions and down turns a customers loyalty to a particular brand, product or business is what brings a business through the rough times. It is the percieved experience of any particular customer that builds that loyalty. Did you fullfill your brand promise. Maybe this should be the focus that a business uses when setting up their recession survival strategies?

We invite your comments as always.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Blog. Customer loyalty is always important in providing a solid customer base.

Anonymous said...

As I have been a Customer Service Professional and trainer for over 25 years, I too am shocked at how many businesses under value their customers. The problem is when you dont fully appreciate the true value of your customers, you tend to make incorrect decisions when it comes to satisfiying those same customers when things go wrong.

The more value we place on something, the more we are willing to do to keep it and the same goes for our customers. That is why understanding their true value is important if not absolutely essential.

Anonymous said...

Very few businesses actually spend time trying to figure out just how valuable their average customer is. They think in terms of the last purchase or the average purchase when in fact the value of a customer is much more than that.

The bottom line is that we treat something according to it's percieved worth to us. If you view our customers worth at only a fraction of what it really is, then we will fail to provide them with what they deserve from us.

ANROMA said...

I see business owners not understanding the damage this brings to their business.

If a business owner doesn't 'care' about customer satisfaction, the bottom line is they just don't understand. "New customers will come." "At least we made their one sale."

I've seen it time and time again. The small business needs to step up to the Customer Service plate.

Don't just train employees on product, get them professional business etiquette and customer service training.

-Margaret Hernandez
anromaway.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

A business operator, owner or manager who forgets the long term value of a customer won't be on the job or in business for long. Developing a relationship - one that is based on a connection with your customer as a person - will pay off. Of course, your product or service has to be up to par. It's the repeat business that allows you to build your sales. Exceptional customer service = Repeat business!

Lori Jo Vest
co-author of "Who's Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan"
Pending release by AMACOM Books/NY in September of 2009
www.whosyourgladys.com

Customer Service Training said...

A customer needs to feel connected and sold out on a provider. This is a great article!

Rickypointing said...

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jlodgequality said...

Great Blog. I have been in the customer service business for more than 15 years and couldn't agree more. The customer interaction; specifically, the first one from greeting, understanding the issue/question, to how it is addressed and how the value is shown is crucial for the customer to feel that they have been serviced correctly.

marry said...

Nice Blog .Cutomer loyalty important .Thanks for providing a brief experession .


With regards


we are a one leading customer service management software selling concern in india

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