The Crack Customer

Starting a business can be hectic, simply because you are not really sure if it’s going to be a success or an epic failure. What makes it even more difficult is convincing loyal customers to turn to your product (I call them crack customers because they are practically addicted to particular products). So what is customer loyalty? According to Financial Times (2014), Customer loyalty occurs when an individual or people choose to use a particular shop or buy one particular product rather than use another shop or buy a different product made by another company. This behavior spreads over an extended period of time mainly due to the positive experience they have had with the product.

Anybody could be a loyal customer, for example I am very loyal to the Clean and Clear product. I’m literally a crack head for this product and I stubbornly refuse to use any other product. The thing is it works for me, always has, hopefully always will. It’s literally impossible for me to change to say ‘Mwana Mugimu’ or Cocoa butter because I fear that my face may have an episode (break out and get massive pimples due to a negative reaction….eeek). So there you have it, my name is Naiga Victoria and I am a Clean and Clear crack customer (and it’s about time they sent me some free samples….lol).

Now someone like me can be very challenging to a new business; I need to be convinced twice as much compared to the free spirited customer who will try anything new. Most businesses actually shut down because their customer base was way too small to sustain the business, or sometimes it’s simply because you are marketing to the wrong customer. So, find out who your customer is (like seriously who are you going to sell to if you don’t know who is interested in purchasing the product). Speak to a couple of people, ask questions, you will be surprised at what you may find out. Use questionnaires and distribute these to friends, family, and sort of like random sampling.

With this, you will be able to know who is more likely to welcome the idea of purchasing your product. It could be the younger group (between the age of 10 to 18), middle aged, males, females, or the elderly (yup…..the elderly). This information will help you narrow your customer base to a more specific group called a customer niche or segment, and you will be able to commit all your resources to suit their needs. For example, say you are opening a boutique, find out which segment is more likely to buy clothes that fit your idea in terms of color, size, trend. The working class prefer clothes that are conservative (for the older ones), chic, well fitted and trendy (for the youthful customer). You need to ensure that the product you make is more appealing to your specific target audience and you just might attract the ‘crack’ customer as well (wink).

So, instead of looking at your target very broadly, narrow it down to a more accepting small segment, give them an excellent service and product and voila…..you may have yourself some loyal customers. Thumbs up. That’s all from me today.

Ta