Many businesses face a huge amount competition in their industries. Changes in technology mean that your clients and prospects see hundreds of offers for products and services everyday.
If you don’t understand your clients and meet their needs, you can’t survive. Use these tips to provide great service to your customers and grow your business.
Your ideal customer
Marketing your product can be expensive. As your customers see more offers from your competitors, you may need to spend more money and time on your marketing efforts. One way to spend your marketing dollars wisely is to identify your ideal customer.
Your ideal customer is the set of traits that your best customers share. You may consider age, gender, occupation, geographic region and other factors.
Say, for example that you manufacture and sell high-end fire pits to homeowners. To sell a large fire pit that can be moved and stored when it isn’t in use. Based on your analysis, your ideal customer is a male between 35 and 55 years old.
The customer has an upper level or high level of income, and likes to entertainment people at home. Knowing your ideal customer also helps you define your target market.
Great customer service
Obviously, your customers have many options when they want to buy a portable fire pit. Assume that your biggest competitors are Home Depot and Lowes. To compete, you need to provide better customer service than the competition.
One way you compete is to get your product to the customer quickly. To do that, you sell fire pits through retail locations around the country. It’s important for you to keep a sufficient inventory of fire pits at each retailer.
Related: The Complete Guide to Customer Retention (Innovative Ideas That Work)
Improving cash flow through factoring
Stocking the retail locations can have a huge impact on your cash flow. If you have to wait until the retailer receives your shipment to collect payment, you may not have sufficient cash flow to operate your business.
TBS freight factoring demonstrates how you can improve your cash flow through ‘recourse factoring.’ Say, for example, that you are shipping $10,000 of fire pits to a retailer.
By paying a freight factoring company a fee, that company will pay you when your goods are shipped (less the amount of the fee).
The factoring company collects the $10,000 from the retailer when their store gets your shipment. You benefit by collecting cash sooner, which helps you manage the cash you need to operate your business.
Deliver a quality product
Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than buying a product that doesn’t work. Even if the seller makes a huge effort to replace the faulty product, it’s still frustrating to a client.
Make sure that you deliver a quality product the first time. Use high-end parts and components. Monitor and train your staff to ensure that they’re creating a product that works correctly. These steps can help you build a great reputation in the mind of the customer.
To find business, you have to be different. Nail down who your ideal customer is, and design your business around those set of traits. Provide a high quality product and deliver great customer service. These steps can help you separate yourself from the competition.