6 Types of Customers in Business – Episode 1

Speaker 1 (00:00): Welcome to the Customer Care Channel. Today we are going to talk about what defines a customer. You are here with your host, Lisa. So let’s get started. Are you wondering what defines a customer, what types of customers there are? Or even looking to learn more about customer services? You are in the right place, but we do need to know our basics. So we’re going to start from the beginning and work our way up and build our knowledge. So like I said, I want to start the basics as I was always taught to never assume someone’s knowledge on any subject. Let’s face it, you are here to learn or you wouldn’t be here. There are lots of types of customers some of you may not have thought about. You have your typical customer who goes into a shop or your online store and buys a service or a product. (00:59) This customer usually has seen something they like or has seen your advertising and has been convinced they need or want your products. They come to you, they make a purchase and possibly leave never to be seen again or comes back for more. This customer is consuming your products as they use whatever it is you are selling. So we can also call this customer a consumer. This is called business to consumer sales. We then have business to business sales where your business would sell directly to another business, quite possibly with you acting as a supplier. This could be that they need the ink that you sell for the business printers in the office, or you could even be supplying materials for their products to be made. If you provide a report to someone that you work with every week, you could even call them a customer as you are providing them with something valuable and your service needs to be on point. (02:01) But let’s stick to our paying customers to make things super easy. You now have the types of customers. So imagine you have a physical shop, someone walks in and is looking around your shop. This customer is a looker as they are browsing, but not necessarily buying the customer could be a future sale. So never dismiss them as much as you may find them. Annoying, just looking around and browsing and leaving. Actually, this person could come back and spend quite a significant amount of money, so treat everyone the same. You then have customers looking for discounts. They will only buy if your products are on discount no matter what. This doesn’t mean they don’t think your product’s worth it. It may have been that they have been brought up to be super frugal. You just really never know. Treat this customer the same as any full paying customer. (02:55) They may buy full price next time if you treat them well and they understand the value given. Once they’ve had your product once, they may think this is actually worth the price at full value. There are then customers who have compared you and your products to other competitors and know exactly the difference between what is being offered and the value given. These are the researchers. They are looking for the best buy for their money. Quality is everything here, and don’t be scared of showing them your reviews from quality, happy customers who have bought in the past. We then have the impulse buyers. These people will buy into anything and everything. I believe purchasing makes them excited. Sometimes I am a bit like this. Best way to get these customers to buy into your business is to offer discounts which time out. But we aren’t here for the sale right now. (03:52) I believe in building relationships with your customers so they sing your praise and become the ultimate long-term customer. So these types of customers, I’m very wary about. I don’t really like to sell things to people who are just buying for the sake of it. It’s better to sell to someone that is actually really in need of what you are selling so that in the future they sing your praises. They build up your reputation by obviously word of mouth. Then we have the unsure ones who will ask every question they can think of. They’ll walk away, they’ll come back and maybe even walk away again. They just want to make sure they are doing the right thing. And to be honest, walking away can help to see if they really want the product or not, or it really fits their needs. You don’t want an unhappy customer that regrets buying from you. (04:45) As it could turn sour. You’ve spoke to all these sour people out there. It can really turn nasty. So lastly, you then have the customers who are already using the same product or service elsewhere and are looking for a better quality, more valuable product with better service. This customer will want to know everything and why you are better than where they are right now. No point convincing them as you want them to make the right decision. You need to just lay out what you can provide, giving them valuable facts and giving them space to think, and then if they choose to move to you, that’s a bonus. The fact is you’re taking care of the customer, you’re making them feel great, and that tends to be in the long term what people buy into. Now, I know this may be controversial, but we are here to build rapport with our customers. (05:44) We are not here to make a quick sale. This is not a sales podcast here. I believe in making sure your customer has the right product and the best service, which will serve them the long term and therefore turn into more sales. So this is so much more important for your business to survive and let’s be honest, build your reputation. Now, you may be thinking, how do I deal with all these customers? And to be honest, everyone is different as we are all individuals and we all like different approaches. Your best angle is to listen to your customers as each individual person. Be empathetic when needed, provide value and be honest if your product doesn’t fit the bill, and that can be really difficult. Reason is you want the customer to tell everyone about your business, and if they think you didn’t sell to them as it wasn’t suitable, they will sing your praises as being a great business to deal with. (06:46) Hence, more positive word of mouth, which the more people they talk to about how fantastic you are, the more people that will actually come to see you in the long term. So just remember to focus on the customer as an individual and you will see your business change rapidly for the best. Yes, it’s good to know what each customer is and what type of customers there are, but deal with everyone as an individual and they will feel that valued and will definitely come back for more. Hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s episode and the very, very first episode, proper episode of this podcast. Please do rate and subscribe and please do review because it’ll help this podcast grow and I will see you next time. Thanks for listening. Bye.