@bbqcravings
www.bbqcravings.com
They say customers are kings and definitely they are kings but I think the right customer is the king – not all customers are equal
Podcast Key Notes
There are different angles to this. I once read online about an article online called “A thousand true fans”. Most businesses do not have a thousand true fans – true fans of a business are those customers that will buy anything you put out and obviously, with true good fans, you can increase how often customers buy from you and the amount they buy from you. So when you have a thousand true fans/customers imagine each of them has 5 friends or family members that they can introduce to you, that’s 4 thousand more customers.
Listen to the podcast for more.
Knowing your Customer:
It’s not a matter of quantity of customers you have; I think it’s more of the quality of customers you have. There are businesses with 4k followers on Instagram doing very well than people with 60k followers.
There is this term called “In-between” – it’s called “Pareto’s Principle” (you can check it up) – the idea behind it is that 20% of your customers gives you 80% of your revenue . So imagine you have 100 customers and you make from each 10k; now they are saying 20 of those customers will give you 80k in sales. So the idea is to focus on that 20% and I guess you call it the true customers.
We have a lot of key customers and those who buys from us once in a while; I think our focus should be on those key customers. The truth is when you have a true customer; you are building a very strong bond with them. It’s more like an organic growth
Listen to the Podcast to Learn about life cycle of your customers…
Not all customers are equal. Grant it, we should treat all our customers equally at the front levels which means great customer service but, there are some customers we should do better with. Now you need to have great customer service generally, but to your special customers – the ones that will try out any new thing on the menu, give you feedback, and help you push the brand forward – they are the ones you want to keep within this cycle.
So once you know who your customers are, you can serve them particularly well.
Handling tough customers & Coding system we set up to classify some negative customer interactions:
- Issue stemming from transfer payments – The idea of transfer is good for business but it’s messy because we’ve had cases where some customers claimed they’ve made payment via transfer when they haven’t and I have had to write off some money.
- We’ve had issues where deliveries went wrong because some houses are so difficult to locate or there’s flooding when it rains. Some customers don’t pick up calls when riders are at theirs or take too long to respond affecting other meal deliveries.
- I’ve had customers threaten to come and beat up staff, or in some cases they come in fuming and management gets involved to calm the customer down. I think when one someone comes in yelling and swearing for a bad or poor service received; that’s not a healthy customer to have.
Now you can fire customers which I have done in the past but knowing what I know now, I would have handled it differently. But there is more headache in dealing with such customers; so I came up with a code
Black – So let’s say I’m a very difficult customer – I asked my staff to save the number as ‘Black’. So when you see ‘Olumide black’ it means I’m a very tough customer.
Red – If it was an abusive customer that was very rude and insulted a staff; we save the name as ‘Red’. So this scheme helps every customer service staff understand the characteristics of our respective customers and how best to handle them.
Blue is for transfer issues – people that will claim that they’ve transferred and it will take texting them for days before they pay – now if Olumide Blue is calling, we can simply claim we are not accepting transfers today.
Green is for delayed pickups or places that are difficult to deliver in.
Grey – customers who don’t come to pick up orders.
So this is one way for us to understand our customers and know how to relate with them when it comes to service. (Listen to the podcast for more)
Now the idea is not to judge customers but this is a system we are using to offer best service to our customers.
I think brands need loyal customers and when a customer is loyal to your brand – because you understand them and serve them the way they want to be served – you will have a healthy long lasting relationship with them and that’s what we are trying to build. You need to have customers who genuinely love your brand and will stick even when things go out of place. Listen to the Podcast
Key Takeaway Points:
- When you have a thousand customers and each of them has 5 friends or family members that they can introduce to you, that’s 4 thousand potential customers
- It’s not a matter of quantity of customers you have; it’s more of the quality of customers you have
- The truth is when you have a true customer; you are building a very strong bond with them
- To understand your customers do surveys, get feedback, encourage feedback and fix things as it happens
- know who your customers are and invest in them
- Know what your customers are saying about your brand to see if there is anything you can do better because they are the lifeline of your business
- brands need loyal customers and when a customer is loyal to your brand; you will have a healthy long lasting relationship with them
- Until a customer is happy with your product and services; you’ve not earned their money
- A special customer is the ones that will try out any new thing on the menu, give you feedback, and help you push the brand forward.
