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.

In Times of Recession

It is amazing that when times get tough in our businesses we seem to create the very behaviors that bring our businesses further down even to the point of closing the doors.

The "Glooms" come out to play, we loose focus of our primary goals, and we spend all our time in trying to find the magic key to deliver us from the Doom Gods. Worst of all we turn away from the two greatest factors in any business or economic turn around, our employees and our customers. It's amazing how businesses in developed countries panic and loose control of their instincts and their self control.

I often travel to underdeveloped countries and what I find are people who thrive in adversity and economies that are in constant flux, and that's mostly in a recessionary down turn. But what I also find are people, who in spite of it all, pay attention to detail and never ever forget the importance of focusing on the customer. The businesses in these countries and communities, whether large or small, know that their very existence is tied to the customers or potential customers perception of their products, service and how the customer is treated as an individual. Perhaps we should learn from this.

The customer's needs will always be there no matter what the economy may be doing, and they will always be looking for ways to meet their needs and solve their problems either in a business to business environment, or as individual consumers. What sets a successful business apart from the rest in an adverse business environment isn't government bailouts, or uncle John's bank account, but the way they recognize and deal with their customers and employees everyday.

In a time when everyone is looking for answers maybe if we learn to use the answers we already have we just may find that success is not just a term for economic upturns. If you want to survive the tough times pay attention to your best friends, your customers and they will always be there to take care of you.