Is It Time To Fire Your Customers?
It's fascinating to me that most businesses I work for claim that all their transactions are customers. In other words, a customer is merely someone who bought something from them or through them. As long as there was a transaction and an exchange of dollars. I would question the validity of this point. I would suggest that we be harder on the profile of a real customer. Harder to the point of calling some customers purely transactions.
Someone buys your product or service once and never buys it again. They get you to lower the price for that purchase in order for them to buy it. They never refer anyone to you or help you understand why they bought from you. They tell everyone else about the great deal they got from you so that everyone else expects the same thing. They do not have an ongoing need for your product and service. Even if they did, they make you compete for their business, even though you're the best, every time they are interested in purchasing.
My suggestion is to not call this person a customer. I would refer to them as a transaction. If we call them a customer then we try to do business with them again. A certain percentage of all your transactions will never be repeat business, no matter how much you invest. My challenge is for you to profile the customer that you wish all your customers were. How often do they buy? What do they buy? Why do they buy it from you? What difference do they see in what you do that makes them willing to pay a little bit more? What makes them go out of their way to buy from you? If they are unhappy with their service, they tell you first because they want to stay with you and they want you to correct their frustration. They do not ask you to bid for their business every time they are looking to have something done. They believe in a relationship where each person wins in the process.
Take the last 18 to 24 months and make a list of these kinds of customers. How did they happen to come to you? What did you do to make them feel special? What do you do to go out of your way for this specific group.
It's interesting that over the last few years, large companies with thousands of customers have begun focusing on loyalty programs to quantify and qualify the real customers. Then out of those real customers, to decide which one has the greatest potential to maintain satisfaction over time and to bring in more business.
I typically say great things about Northwest airlines. Not because I live in one of their hub cities, but because I believe that based upon what they do for me and other loyal customers, exceeds the response from other airlines. Certainly with my travel schedule I am at the platinum level of Northwest and have been for almost 15 years. Each year, the loyalty program gets a little stronger. Each year they pick out one or two things that benchmark the response and the relationship at a higher level of recognition. I can pick up the phone and talk to somebody at Northwest who answers the phone by the third ring. They care about the fact that my wife can travel with me once in a while and want to make sure that I am at least once in a while in first class if at all possible. So if you take all your customers and try to treat them the same, the transactions will never be customers no matter what you do or what you invest. And in doing this, are you not stealing from your best customers to try to keep your lousiest customers? Now that statement is definitely worth some time and thought. Not all customers are real customers.
About the Author
 Thomas Winninger is the founder of WINNINGER Visionscope a Minneapolis based Think Tank. He is author of the best selling books MarketQuake, Price Wars, Full Price and Sell Easy and his just published book BULLSEYE! - What Market Leaders are doing to consistently HIT the BULLSEYE! Thom is one of the most in-demand business speakers in the North America today. For more information about his programs please visit,
BULLSEYE! How Market Leaders consistently hit The Mark
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