Building a Customer Profile 10/26/2011
 A customer profile tells you who you are making you product or service for. Why is this important, you might ask, well there are a few reasons. First is that it tells you who your customer is, their hobbies, their needs, their taste, everything. It allows you to build a marketing plan and a business design that suites their needs rather than their own. One of the biggest issues I find as a web designer is people who build their company a website that they like rather than what their customer will like. I have also been a victim to this train of thought, it's not an easy one to break. This is why a customer profile is important, to make you take on their personality when designing anything related to your business. Here are some of the things you should include in your customer profile, if you have more than one type of customer, make a profile for each of them. If you have more than 3 or 4 types of customers you may want to think of limiting your product line or trimming down your services. For the sake of example I will go ahead and build a customer profile for my business, J-Tech. I do have 2 types of customers, B2B and B2C, for this I will use a B2C environment. Name: john smith Go ahead and name your customer, you are going to take on their persona, and hwo do you do that without a name? Age: 18-35 The age for this specific person, try and use something realistic. For example, my John Smith isn't going to be 70 playing video games and working. Occupation: business, desk job, uses a computer frequently For you to relate to your customer they need a job, look at your customer base and think of a common theme of work among them. It may be a suit and tie job, a construction 9-5 job, or maybe even retirees. Income: middle to upper class Income level is very important, it not only helps you decide how often they will buy your product but can also help you set a price point. Exactly how much disposable income do they have to buy your product/service? Hobbies: watching movies, playing video games, fishing, relaxing What does your customer do in their free time? How can you market your product or service to fit their activities? Location: Plumas County If you are an online business you can still answer this question. Look at your website statistics and see who is buying the majority of your products, and see where that is. Likes: cleanliness, ample amounts of information, speed or service, quality What does your customers house look like? Their sense of style can often tell you a lot about what they enjoy in their life. Be it fast cars, drugs, or cleanliness, everybody has something they like that they would like to see in your product/service. Dislikes: clutter, vagueness, unreliability, wasting money or time Same as above, what are the things that would turn your customer away from your business? are there certain things you need to avoid in order to keep your customers? What need do they have? They need their computer functioning while retaining their important data. They want to feel respected and not be looked at as uneducated. What is their problem? Do they need their computer looked at? Maybe they need food, what are they looking for? Are you filling that need? Yes Are you truly filling their need? If you customer wants comfort, are you able to provide that? If they want comfort, can your meals fulfill that or do you sell skittles and slushies? Why will they choose you over your competition? speed of service, lower price point, money back guarantee. What makes you stand out form the crowd, maybe it's your attitude, range of products, or type of product. How often will they buy your product/service? 2-3 Times per year How often do they have a need filled? If they buy your product weekly, you can use that to your advantage by giving them special offers or even informing them of new products that they may like! How often will the use your product/service? N/A as a service How often will they use the product you sell to them? Is it a one time deal, maybe your main goal should be making that initial and only use far superior to the rest of your business. If they buy candy from you, make sure that is the best bite of candy they can have. If your product is used over and over maybe you need to spend some marketing resources to keep them in the know and wanting new products even though they don't need it. Remember, these should be as detailed as you can make them, I created this profile in about 5 minutes. Take your time and really find out who your customer is. Five business benefits of building customer profiles are: m4bmarketing.com Better Communication If you think about your communication with long-time friends, versus those you don’t know very well. You quickly realise how much easier it is because you know more about them. With customers the same is true and if you have a profile you are in a better position to know what to communicate, when to communicate and by what method. Greater Opportunities It is far easier to develop opportunities for your brand because you will find they will provide feedback and suggestions. You will be able to refine your product or service offerings to better meet their needs and new opportunities to develop other products and services that are important to them. Reduces Competition If you have a profile you will know the key elements of how to maintain strong relationships so they are not vulnerable to competitive offers. A profile helps you refine what you do in customer service, pricing, offers, staying in touch etc so they do not become dissatisfied. Increases Profit Once you have a profile of your key customers, then it becomes a lot less expensive in time and money spent developing the relationship. You will be able to plan ahead instead of marketing on the run and have a higher return on your efforts. Brings in More Customers It is much easier to attract more customers when you actually know about your current customers. You will be able to build a target list of potential customers who are more likely to be attracted to your products and services. You will also find that you receive more referrals and recommendations from your current customers to others similar in profile. With competition for customers increasing everyday, can you afford not to actively know more about your key customers? CommentsLeave a Reply |
RSS Feed