Your 4 Types Of Customers – and the simple way to attract more of the 3rd type

If like me you work or have worked in a retail store, you probably know how fascinating (and often predictable) customers are.

You would have seen and interacted with countless customers day in and day out.

Being at the front line of service for your employer gives you a great view of who exactly is walking through the doors.

….And really, there are only 4 main types of customers. Each which you can uniquely cater towards.

Here they are;

1. The Impulse customer.

These are the people who cant resist a bargain – or simply cant resist to buy stuffs! Create beautiful looking displays for this type of folk. Put your most interesting products in the space where your customers queue – preferably something they can easily pick up and explore, something thats too irresistible not to add to their basket.

2. The wandering customer.

Now these often create the largest amount of traffic for a shop – but the smallest amount of sales. Of corse you will see a rise of wandering customers at different times of the year. The location of your store will coincide with the amount of wandering customers you receive.

Wanderers have no real reason to be in your store, they may just be killing time, or meeting a date. Yet Its still very important to provide these customers with excellent service and hope they are also impulse customers.

3. The loyal customer.

God love the loyal customer. You should keep in regular contact with these. Through email/post/phone. These are the ones who can and should influence your buying and merchandising decisions.

A good idea may be to set up a loyalty scheme. Have tailor made –  exclusive offers only for them to let them know how cherished they are. Even a simple thank you note will go a long way.

4. The need-based customer

The most common type of customer aka -the need-based customer  would have found your business through specifically requiring a product -whether it be through referral or a good ol’ google search.

This group offer the greatest opportunity to grow into loyal customers.

How is this done?

By providing them with such an outstanding service that we will be sure to return.

Because people will always favour the place where they received the best service – even if it is a little more expensive then alternatives.

So strive to deliver an excellent service, go the extra mile, get them to opt in for future offers and let them know about the other products you sell.

A satisfied customer can easily become a loyal customer.

You are invited to the exclusive, one time only, limited look at the …..scarcity-principle ?

“We believe we are the consumers, but we are the consumed.” — Bryant H. McGill

We love exclusiveness.

Anything that is “Invite only,” “One day only” “Members only” “one and only” sure does get us intrigued. 

It could be having the social status of being able to say to our friends “Oh sorry you have to be a member” makes ourselves feel special, it makes ourselves feel …..exclusive. 

This is why loyalty schemes work so well. You are given rewards for your loyalty and for choosing to be a member of that companies scheme. Only you are introduced to offers that are not advertised the wider public. Better snap up the exclusive bargain!

Not only is the dating website beautifulpeople.com exclusively tailored for good looking individuals, but when it was first launched you could only gain access by being invited by an existing member. (i.e someone who thinks you are good looking) As vein and shallow as the website sounds it makes you wonder who are these people on this glorious website, how can I gain access? I want to look at single beautiful women too! Exclusiveness creates curiosity. (Google+ also started out as “invite only” but I decided to use the dating website example purely for the uniqueness of it)

This ties nicely in to the scarcity-principle.

How many times have you been looking at a product in store pondering wether or not to buy it, you approach a sales assistant for a little more information, its not long until you are told that this particular item you are indecisive about buying is the in fact the last one. After this one is sold he is unsure whether the store will ever get anymore back in.

Thats it. Fear kicks in. You don’t want to risk never being able to own the product. You buy it!

The same technique is used enormously by estate agents. Whilst being shown around a property and you display some interest, but a equal amount of uncertainty in the house/flat, its very likely you will be fed an all too popular story of “thers another couple showing great interest in this same property and seemed very keen to buy, infact they were looking to move in as soon as next week.” The is done;

1. to create a sense of urgency so that you make a decision
2. to make you want it more by there being a chance of you NOT being able to have it.

Quite simply a lot of us a lot of the time are 3 year old toddlers again – We want what we cant have.

Limited availability. Limited stock. Limited time. All of these push us into buying, even when we don’t really want to buy. 

Amongst other persuasion techniques and influence tactics, the scarcity-principle is one of the most effective and widely used by businesses.

I have many others to show you, so stick around, this blog wont be around forever 😉

Reuben.

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