Sometimes as a business owner, all you think about is your brand, your products and how they will benefit your customers’ lives – basically, about your life as an entrepreneur or business owner.
However, do you ever stop to think about what it looks like from your customers’ end? Probably not! Which is why, I’ve put together this list of 10 benefits of being a customer to help you understand your customers better and subsequently, serve them better because remember – Customer is King.
Now put yourself in the shoes of your customer, infact, just imagined the last thing you bought from a vendor or a store, it could even be a roadside vendor but just remember the last time you were a customer – here is what it felt like:
7 benefits of being a customer:
1. You get to exchange your money for an equal value of product or service
Yes! You’re the customer so the money you give out should equal the value that you are getting whether it’s a product or a service – nothing less but it could be more. 😁
Lesson for the brand owner – Your customers are trusting you with their hard earned money so you must do your best to ensure they are getting the right value from you for their money by making sure your products or services are up to standard.
2. You get to be treated like royalty, after all it’s your money
It’s not easy to make money, abi? So it only makes sense that whatever brand you’re willing to spend your money on treats you like royalty. Nothing less!
Lesson for the brand owner – Customers are the lifeline of your business, so it makes total sense to treat them as such by putting systems in place to ensure they are given the best treatment when they patronize you – from customer service to logistics and getting their orders delivered.
3. If you don’t like the product, you get to complain and get your money back or a compensation
And why not? You are the customer, remember? So if you pay for something and it’s less than or totally different from what you ordered, you have the right to be compensated for that loss.
Lesson for the brand owner – Customers always expect you to compensate them for an error in delivery, whether or not it’s your fault. Learn to deal with this the right way by reading this article on how to handle customer complaints.
4. As a customer, you have the power to ruin the reputation of any business
If a brand decides that you’re not worth listening to maybe after you have complained, all you have to do is take it to the streets of social media and voila! That brand will spend more money trying to recover their reputation than they would have if they had just listened to you.
Lesson for the brand owner – Never underestimate a customer with a grievance, all it takes is a tweet to ruin your brand reputation which will take time and other costly resources to repair. Take customer complaints seriously and do your best to mitigate it so it doesn’t become something worse.
If you’ve been a loyal customer to a brand, you deserve a reward
It’s not easy to be spending all your money in one place so of course you deserve a reward! I mean, how annoying is it to visit a store you always patronize and treated like a first time customer? Not good!
Lesson for the brand owner – Create a customer loyalty reward system that rewards your long time customers either through discounted sales or even gift items. This will strengthen your relationship with them and increase their customer lifespan with you. Customer is King but you see long time customers? They’re gold! Not only will they vouch for your business anywhere and give you more referrals, they are also the unhired ambassadors of your business.
You’re a customer that wants to spend your money, you shouldn’t be stressed in any way
Yes, why will one seller come and be stressing you because you want to buy “market”? It’s your money you want to spend and this Instagram person has not replied to her DM for two days now. Haba!
Lesson for the brand owner – Your customers want to patronize you, don’t make it hard for them to. Run your business with a good sales system (like an eShop) that lets your customers easily order for your service or product without any stress or hassle.
7. As a customer, you get to choose from several options if a particular vendor starts underperforming or disappointing
How would you like it if a favourite vendor tried to take advantage of you just because you constantly patronize them? The great thing is that “there are plenty fishes in the river!”
So just go ahead to the next brand willing to treat you like the gold that you are.
Lesson for the brand owner – Many small business owners make the mistake of trying to take advantage of their customers just because they are so trusting of you – so maybe you increase the price for the particular customer or you give him/her less value than they paid for.
It always backfires and you know what? Your competition is waiting with open arms to swoop in and grab that customer! Give your customer the value they pay for, even though you know they can pay so much more. Don’t compromise on your standard because of a little change you can always make later.
And that’s it guys! Which lesson did you like this most? Which can you relate to most? Tell me in the comments!
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