Who is the most important Client?
Firstly, most of us may admit that we do not see a lot of difference in a client to a customer, both demand the same amount of attention, generate similar income for your business and both pay their accounts on time, right? Well let’s put things into perspective by looking at what a client hierarchy may look like, this will give us a clear understanding of how we can categorise our clients from customers.
On the bottom we have the ‘Suspect’ which are potential clients, which includes anyone and everyone. Next is a “Prospect”, someone that may of heard of your business through any marketing mediums, or even just by walking by on the foot path or driving by on a daily basis on their way to work. The “Customer” sits very comfortably in the middle and is someone that you have done business with and has purchased from you in the past. Near the top is the “Client”. A client is a person who repetitively purchases goods or services from your business on a monthly or weekly basis and is of value to you and your business, the final piece to this hierarchy is the Advocate, who is ultimately the key or dream client that tells everyone about your business and the positive experiences they have experienced from you. To ensure that your business is all about quality customers and less about highly stressed staff trying to answer and deliver every call that comes in with not alot to show at the end of the day apart from feeling unsatisfied and over worked, then you need to focus on differentiating between your quality customers and others. In order to do this you must be able to measure and record the average sale value and profit per sale, this will then identify those top customers and will also help you understand more about your industry and/or market.
Once your top customers have been identified, they then become your Clients, and a key way to attract more of them is by building a profile. A profile is quite easy to start and set up with most sales always being recorded in systems anyway, then by adding other information like gender, age and location of business, will only add value to your relationships with your top clients as well as assist in finding more of the same. The next step is to meet with your staff and discuss the importance of these clients and the point of difference between them and the other customers. Encourage staff to focus on giving the clients excellent quality service, by doing this you will get to know them better and in return they will start to become advocates for your business without even knowing it!
So now having established your ideal or dream clients for your business, don’t forget the most important one of them all – You! Without you the business would not exist, so by focusing on you in the first instance you will be able to give your clients better service and performance. Time management plays an integral part of this process and some may say they don’t have time to sit down and assess their work life balance, however without doing this you cannot be both effective and efficient. Workinginyour business, on the nitty gritty, the day to day running is far different from working onyour business with development of strategic planning, networking and team building. So to be effective in business you need to have a good core wellbeing in life which is referred to as a life map; Humanity and Community / Home and Family / Self and Health / Business and Career. To be able to support a good balance in all areas is very hard to achieve especially for men whom traditionally exceed in the Business and Career area with weaknesses elsewhere, whereas women excel in all areas apart from Self and Health. However, point being is by taking time out and addressing this life map on a regular basis significant changes will happen in you as a person and within your business. Once you have worked out how to become more effective by working on your business, efficiency will flow naturally after and your clients will reap the benefits of this positive change.
So in summary, who is most important client? Without stating the obvious this article is just a prompt to engage your thinking: Who are my top clients? Do I have too many customers? Do I have any advocates? How much time do I spend on my business, and do I need to achieve a better core wellbeing in my life?
In a nut shell, it starts and ends with you and whatever effort you put into your life, your business will only flourish from it.
