The ideal customer is the person who is going to patronize a small business with frequency and not require much in the way of customer acquisition costs. Identifying these customers is critical for building the small business in a sustainable way. However, there are many small business owners focusing on the demographic characteristics of customers and not on the traits that make ideal customers. Here’s the criteria customers must meet in order to be ideal.
Easy to Attract
It should not take much work to attract a customer who would be an ideal customer. If an ideal customer has a certain way of engaging with businesses, it’s imperative to investigate that channel and see how easy it actually is to attract these customers. With Millennial and Gen Z customers, social media is a great way to attract these customers. However, what should happen is quick engagement. It shouldn’t take repeated efforts to get these customers into the store.
Minimal Retention Effort
When it takes lots of different approaches for customers to come back, those are not ideal customers. Instead, it shouldn’t take much engagement to keep customers. There are several ways to tell if retention is easy, but the best method is reviews. Asking customers to leave reviews is a simple way to tell if they’re retained. Customers who are happy and willing to patronize the business repeatedly will provide reviews. So, if the review stream is flowing, that means there’s minimal retention effort made in keeping customers.
Natural Loyalty
Customers who are naturally loyal are ideal customers. There are several ways to make customers naturally loyal. A great example is how Starbucks uses the app and the point system to create loyalty. Because of the system, customers are not interested in trying out Dunkin Donuts coffee or other local shops. For a small business, there are several ways to create this loyalty. The key is a customer’s habits should include patronizing the business. That’s when loyalty becomes natural. These customers are now recurrent buyers, and are the people who will lend a small business great credibility with their reviews, testimonials, etc.
Developing an ideal customer profile is not easy if a small business owner lacks marketing background. Fortunately, Preveer consultants are able to help develop these profiles and ensure the ideal customer fits the criteria. Learn how to find the ideal customer and market to them here.
