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Many of your customers today are so busy
Chrysler’s in bankruptcy. GM may be next. The silver linings on the cloudyhorizon are pretty faint right now. And, yet … I’m not ready to give up the ghostand I doubt that you are either.The question is, what to do? Sit around and wait for things to change? Or takesome action that will give destiny a nudge in the right direction?Personally, I’ve always believed the philosopher who said “the only reality is inaction”. And one action I believe everyone needs to consider in tough times ishow marketing dollars are being spent.Right now all the experts are advising us to focus on our customers. (That’salways been our business at Loyalty Builders). Customers are the core strengthof any business and an even more important asset in a slow-down. Theprograms that support customers, keep them happy, and keep them coming backto buy, are critical.The mistake that’s often made, however, is looking only at how marketing dollarsare being spent. It’s very important to understand what customers are doing asa result of the expenditures beyond just buying. That may sound obvious. Butgross revenue is only part of what you need to know to sharpen your marketingpencil.So, when Loyalty Builders’ clients asked us to use their data to put a finer pointon marketing spend, we developed a new way to measure marketingeffectiveness. Our new Marketing Effectiveness Score (MES) blends sevenmeasurements we make for every client into an overall score that ranges fromone to 100. The seven measurements in the score are all derived from customer behavior.As a client, you can use the MES to compare your current performance againstyour past, or against other, similar, companies. You can dig down into thenumber and examine its components in the same way. You can identify whereyou’re improving vs. yourself and others. You can identify the marketingfunctions you need to get in better shape. It’s a unique new tool. As far as weknow, there’s nothing like our Marketing Effectiveness Score available fromanyone but us.The most aggressive approach to bad times is to figure out who your bestcustomers are and market to them relentlessly. Analyze your customers basedon transaction data that’s sitting in sales or accounting databases. It’s going totell you things about your best customers you never realized.But beware. Best customers are not just the 5% or 10% who generate the most
 
revenue. In fact, customers who spend the most may already be spending allthey can with you.The wonderful thing about segmentation is that when you look at it carefully you’llrealize that you have at least three kinds of best customers:The wonderful thing about segmentation is that when you look at it carefully you’llrealize that you have at least three kinds of best customers:
•
Best revenue producers
•
Best growth prospects
•
Best worst customers (nope that isn’t a misprint)These are the customers who will help you through this tough market.Each of these segments behaves differently, as you can see in the segmentationchart. Your campaigns will be more successful when you market to eachsegment based on what analysis predicts they’re likely to do next. Sending thesame offer to everyone is more than a waste - it can damage your brand amongpeople who see your message as a bother not a help.Best revenue producers - Let them know how valuable they are. Ply them withoffers that will help you retain their business and sustain their purchase levels.Best growth prospects - Mid-tier customers who often spread their businessamong suppliers. Market to them to win a bigger share of their trade. If they’rebuying a narrower list of items compared with others, your analysis will tell youso. Work to broaden their market basket by identifying products they’re probablybuying elsewhere and making offers to win that business.Best worst customers - New customers who’ve bought once or twice from youdon’t rank high, because they haven’t yet generated a lot of revenue. But someof them are destined to be bigger revenue producers if you treat them right.Identify one-time buyers who’ve bought recently and go after them. A secondsale is a big step in securing future loyalty.Forget about your old definition of best customers in 2009, and I believe you’ll bein better shape by year end.
customer, also called
client 
,
buyer 
, or 
 purchaser 
, is usually used to refer to a current or  potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization,called the supplier ,seller , or vendor . This is typically through purchasing or renting goodsor  services. However, in certain contexts, the term
customer 
also includes by extensionanyone who uses or experiences the services of another. A customer may also be a viewer of the product or service that is being sold despite deciding to not buy them.
 
The word derives from "custom," meaning "habit"; a customer was someone whofrequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods of the sort the shopsold there rather than elsewhere, and with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain arelationship to keep his or her "custom," meaning expected purchases in the future.The slogans "the customer is king" or "the customer is god" or "the customer is alwaysright" indicate the importance of customers to businesses - although the last expression issometimes used ironically.However, "customer" also has a more generalised meaning as in customer service and a less commercialised meaning in not-for-profit areas. To avoid unwanted implications insome areas such as government services, community services, and education, the term"customer" is sometimes substituted by words such as "constituent" or "stakeholder".This is done to address concerns that the word "customer" implies a narrowly commercialrelationship involving the purchase of products and services. However, some managers inthis environment, in which the emphasis is on being helpful to the people one is dealingwith rather than on commercial sales, comfortably use the word "customer" to bothinternal and external customers.
The customer is king. The customer is always right. These are phrases that have been with us for a while.As business and marketing environments have become tougher, it's true that those companies that havefound out what the king wants -- and provided it -- have been successful. This would make it easy, if only itwas clear which king to ask.Many companies draw a distinction between "consumers," those who are the end-user of a product or service, and "customers," those who are the trade, distributors and so on. This kind of customer is verypowerful indeed -- especially if they are Wal-Mart or Tescos. So which customer is more king than theother? And what if they don't agree on what they want? Sounds like war.In global companies the complexity rises. They have consumers and customers, but it's also common thatemployees of that company are also customers of other employees. A trend at the moment is that regionalemployees are customers for central employees. Motivation and, more importantly, aligned goals, areabsolutely critical to success. Getting this wrong can be costly in many ways -- not least in morale, time andmoney.The real truth is that this is not a question of "or." Customer and employee satisfaction and motivation arecritical. The challenge is to create a virtuous circle. Motivated employees are a great way of delivering whatthe customer wants, be that service, fast moving consumer goods, innovation, or anything else, and happycustomers make employees feel rewarded.
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