Is your business focused on the true needs of your top-notch customers? Customer-centric businesses can be 60% more profitable, so we’ve outlined the key ways to refocus your customer strategy.
A business has to solve a need for a target market. Not knowing who your ideal customer is or what you can offer them makes it challenging for your business to get off the ground and maintain momentum.
Making your business more ‘client-centric’
You’re far more likely to enjoy sustainable sales, revenues, and profits if you’re targeting your products and/or services to the needs of a tailored group of customers. This client-centric approach can be a game-changer. In fact, recent research has shown that client-centric companies are 60% more profitable, compared to companies without this focus.
What can you do to refine your focus on your customers’ needs?
Working through the following five steps will help you become a more customer-centric and successful business.
Find the pain and decide how to solve it
Understanding your potential customers’ pain points or needs is a strong place to start. Research what people want and deliver it to them seamlessly at a fair price. If you meet this need, make people’s lives easier or create a brand that people value, you’re setting the foundations for a stable and successful business model.
Decide who is your core audience
Without a core customer profile, your marketing could be simply slinging mud at the wall and hoping some of it sticks. However, by defining clear customer profiles, you can begin to understand your audience and make your marketing and promotion more targeted to their needs and wants.
Do your customer and market research
Knowing as much as possible about your customers is vital if you want to become more customer-centric. What interests do they have? What income bracket are they in? What do they think about your current products? You could engage a market research company to run a customer focus group or your own online customer surveys. You might even create social media polls to get to know your audience more or ask particular questions about customer needs.
Tailor your offering to specific customer profiles
Once you know who you’re selling to, you can customise and tailor your products and/or services. For example, a mobile sandwich service could ask questions about what their office-based customers want to eat, what their favourites are, what current providers aren’t offering, and how much they are willing to spend on a daily lunch. Collating information like this is vital to tailor your offering in the most effective way. The more you can do to focus on the customer, the more aligned your business model will be to their expectations.
Look out for the convenience opportunity
Spotting an obvious opportunity in the market can often result in the germination of a great business idea. Essentially, it’s about identifying the chance for convenience and bringing this solution to your chosen audience.
Becoming more customer-centric isn’t just a fashionable marketing trend. Putting the customer at the centre of your business strategy is a critical factor in driving your growth and profits.
At Pathfinder Solutions, we love helping our clients identify and focus on their target “Class A” customers – improving their service offering and, ultimately, their bottom line. If you’re ready to boost your performance, please get in touch.
About Pathfinder Solutions
Pathfinder Solutions advisory team members have either owned or managed businesses, or are investors themselves, so we know first-hand the challenges you face in your world.
Sure we’re Accountants, but the best solutions in business come from focusing on more than just the numbers. Our real-world business experience delivers just that.
