It’s Report Card Time! For Your Customers!
One of the keys to having a happy business is working with perfect customers or at least customers.
It’s Report Card Time! For Your Customers!
Robert Bylett provides individualised and affordable solutions that are practical, and accelerate the profitability, enjoyment and results you get from your business. Find out more at http://www.extraordinarypeople.co.uk
You know your customers are consciously or subconsciously grading you every time they interact.
One of the keys to having a happy business is working with perfect customers or at least customers. Therefore, you should make a habit of regularly evaluating and actually grading your customers. By regularly, I mean at least annually with an objective system. Also keep in mind that an customer will not necessarily stay a customer over time the customers will change as will your business. So, every year, give each of your customers a grade of A, B, C, D or F.
Once you have graded your customers, then what? Since you want to keep your and customers, this would be a perfect time to tell them how much you value working with them. A customer appreciation event or token of appreciation will go a long way to keeping them as loyal customers and will encourage them to stay high grade customers.
As far as customers with a grade or lower, you should work on shedding them. At minimum, you don’t want to encourage them to continue doing business with you. You should try to professionally discourage them, and if they are really bad customers, go ahead and fire them.
As you are evaluating your customers grades, you can go a step further and identify the of customer they are personality type. Much research has been done with identifying personality types, and you will be at a definite advantage if you and your employees are able to understand all of your customers at their base level. You will be able to anticipate their actions and reactions both positive and negative. More importantly, you will be able to serve them in a manner they prefer and that fits their personality style.
In a great article by Jack Knight, he identifies 12 Breeds of Client.They are:
* The low-tech client
* The uninterested client
* The hands-on client
* The paranoid client
* The appreciative client
* The get-a-good-deal client
* The I’ll-know-it-when-I-see-it client
* The always-urgent client
* The decision-by-committee client
* The doormat client
* The budget client
* The you-should-be-so-lucky client
In the article, Jack shares how to identify the client type as well as the and of that client type. More importantly, he tells us how to work with that type of client. If you’re interested in getting a copy of the article, send me an email message and I’ll be happy to forward it to you.
Lastly, all of the observation and evaluation will be for nothing if you don’t have a method to record it. Create special fields in your customer database or in your customer file to track their grade and personality type and remember to refer to it often as you and your staff interact with the customer.
Service Availability: Most of the services reviewed by "Aus Business Review" are provided by Australian based companies and organisations and available in different Australian states and territories. These include New South Wales (Sydney, Newcastle), Queensland (Brisbane, Gold Coast), South Australia (Adelaide), Victoria (Melbourne, Ballarat), Western Australia (Perth, Albany, Mandurah, Bunbury, Port Hedland, Kalgoorlie), Northern Territory (Darwin, Alice Springs), Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) and Tasmania (Hobart).
Looking For More Information?
Make sure to explore other AusBusiness Review articles in the Business Ideas category or contact us to suggest a website or a service to review.
|
|
The review "It’s Report Card Time! For Your Customers!" was last updated on 21/8/09.
