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WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?
By Daniel Felsted
For your company’s success, it is vital that you teach your employees that they are accountable for the following two types of customers.
When I ask business owners, “Who are your customers?” I am often greeted with a curious stare. Not because they don’t know their customers, but because they can tell by my questioning that I’m after a deeper answer than they were prepared to give. Their perception is correct. My question is out of context. I am trying to assess their understanding or knowledge of who their internal and external customers are. It is important that we pay special attention to both groups of customers. After all, these customer groups are not only our buying customer but also members of the community of individuals that support our business as well.
Internal Customers: Those Who Work With You
Or For You
These customers are your employees. These internal customers are those you deal with on a daily basis to get the job done. When I was a designer, the internal customers that I dealt with in order to get my project completed and delivered on time were other designers, the art director, photographers, project managers, the mailroom staff (shipping and receiving), customer service representatives, salesmen, IT department, and other support staff.
When there was friction between any of these people and myself, getting the job to the client was in danger of being delayed. With the number of personalities involved in each project, the obstacles of scheduling and the deadlines involved there was always pressure to perform. These pressures, combined with the pressures of our daily personal lives, can at times cause us to react in inappropriate ways. This is life. But, when an employee knows that they are accountable for their actions and that come review time what their colleagues say about them is, in part, taken into account whether or not their review is positive or negative, they will be more careful and attentive to their dealings with others. How we treat others is important. A good working relationship with internal customers is vital to having harmonious interdependent relationship and this harmony directly translates into likeminded interactions with your external customers.
External Customers/Potential Customers: Those Who Buy From You and Who Service Your Business
External customers are your buying customers. Let me step aside from the traditional meanings of external customers and suggest that you look more closely into the group of potential customers you deal with on a regular basis. This closer look will revel a group of potential customer consisting of the mail carrier, the trash collector or your radio-advertising representative, to name a few. This group is commonly ignored but are still important for getting your job done on a daily basis and can influence your business for good or bad—yet they are important and should be acknowledged. With the pressure of getting the job done we often don’t take the time to distinguish between who are our customers and who are our potential customers. However, this neglect doesn’t lessen their importance in our daily life. Internally, if the accounting department or custodial-staff don’t do their jobs we won’t have paychecks on time, offices to work in or clean bathrooms. Externally, if your support people view your business in a bad light, the word will spread and it will negatively impact your business reputation. Both traditional and potential customers effect how we perceive and perform our jobs.
These potential customers are important for accomplishing our business objectives. The UPS or FedEx delivery person, the copier serviceman or the grounds keepers all have a relationship with you and your staff. How do you and your staff treat them? Do you thank them for the service they render to you or is it just expected? Is it possible that extending such courtesies might improve your delivery schedules or get your grounds crew to do better job? If getting mail in and out is vital to your business or the way your property looks is important to your customers and if you want people saying good things about your business, the thoughtful acknowledgement of people you might otherwise take for granted can yield significant returns. It could strengthen your “word-of-mouth” advertising as well. Recognize all those you deal with. Each person in the chain is important for your businesses success. A simple “thank you” will go a long way. So would a hot chocolate on a bitter cold day!
Getting back to the original question: When asking businesses, “Who are your customers?” I really want to know how they treat their internal customer—their employees! I also want to know how they treat their external service customers such as the FedEx man and the print saleswoman, etc. But I always start with asking, “Who are your customers?” in order to emphasize the importance of focusing on all of their customers.
Of course, I also want to know how they came to know their traditional customers. Did they solicit their customers’ feedback or was it voluntarily offered? I am trying to ascertain if they really know all of their customers or if they only think they know all their customers. I’m also trying to find out if they know how to treat those customers. I try to encourage them to communicate with all of their customers and to understand what they, as employees, need to do to build customer relationships.
When customer relationships are strong everyone is more willing to finish just one more task before the end of the day or serve just one more customer before they end their shift.
Keep in mind that when you actively educate your employees to recognize and meet the needs of each customer, you are increasing the caliber of your employees, an effort which directly affects your buying customers and your sales. You will also do wonders for your brand at the same time. Too often employers don’t emphasize training for their front-line employees nor do they realize how important training really is for every employee. It is worth every penny spent and it is not for just a select few.
Roy H. Williams said it best in his book The Wizard of Ads, “Any investment in sales training is an investment in your gross profits. The only thing more expensive than hiring a sales trainer is not hiring one.”
For more information on how to strengthen your marketing plan send me an email and request my works on strengthening your assets.
Many thanks to my editor Katarina, katarina@agemni.com
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Daniel C. Felsted is a marketer of ideas. The Image Foundry is a full service corporate marketing training consultancy. Specializing in customer service, employee training and developing internal marketing strategies that grow your business—fast.
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