The Changing Face of Customers in a Bad Economy
The fluctuating economy is changing the workforce and that, in turn, creates changing customers. Their needs change and they expect and seek business relationships that will adapt to their needs.
It is an opportunity to add another dimension to your customer base. Growing your business can be accomplished by adding different customer types in addition to more traditional customers. This might mean changes need to be made to internal processes, but look at ways to leverage existing processes and employ technology to maximize effectiveness.
For example If you’ve always had commercial customers, now might be a good time to consider retail customers. Or if you’ve always done group sales, customized individual sales might lead to higher profits.
9 Ways to attract and serve new customers:
- Determine who your target customers are. It is neither economical nor effective
to aim at everyone. - Have a strategy for marketing and targeting the new type of customer. Focus,
focus, focus. Stick with your strategy – it needs time to work. - Send a clear message that conveys your value and benefits. Make the message
sticky – memorable. - Communicate externally to potential customers in all the ways that make sense
for your business – Facebook, twitter, and RSS feeds provide automatic updates.
Your customers get and receive information in many ways. Help them easily find
out as much as they can about your business. - Demonstrate the value and benefits of your products and services.
- Make it easy to say yes – enrollment and sign-ups should be simple and quick.
Does your system have a mobile app that allows enrollment? Today’s customers
are on the go and multitasking wherever they are and have a spare minute. - Promote the new services that are customized to meet the needs of the new
customer profile. - Communicate the new strategy internally. Employees need to know that there will
be new types of customers who may not fit the old model. They have different
questions – know the answers. - Add new products to serve unmet customer needs. This may take the form of
reshaping an existing product in order to offer new customer benefits. The car
industry offered upscale models with different names, better quality interiors,
more powerful engines, but the basic platform and design of the cars was still the
same. This attracted buyers who were willing to spend more. New products equal
new customers. Or entirely new products can be created that offer access to new
customers.
What are you doing to keep your customers and attract new ones?