Things can get busy in the business world.
Talk to anybody these days about how work is and most will respond, “Busy.”
That’s the way it is today. Companies have been forced to work efficiently and that means getting the most production out of every employee.
The good news is that a lot of businesses are succeeding today. That’s good for everybody involved, but a few are struggling or maybe not realizing their full potential.
One of the issues that can affect any business is focusing on the right customers.
Too Busy, Too Many Customers
Being too busy can be a good thing, but it can also have negative effects.
One of the things that can go wrong is you start losing sight of who your top customer is. You’re busy doing everything for everyone and you lose track of making the business efficient.
It’s good that people are coming to your business, but not all customers are created equal. Some customers will require more effort and resources than others.
Every business wants to find the sweet spot of a customer that will pay full price and require the least effort. The customer is happy and the business is happy.
An example might be what happens sometimes with Groupon and local travel businesses. You could get a rush of Groupon customers, but the discounts were often steep and the customers expect just as much or more than regular customers.
And you know you get busy when you get a rush of Groupon customers. So it seems like you’re busy, but it’s not a good kind of busy.
And this can happen in various ways outside of a Groupon rush.
1. Identify Your Top Customer
The first step to assessing where you stand with your top customer is to take a step back and look at the big picture with your business. It’s often called working on instead of in your business.
Look at the numbers. See how you’ve been doing. Look for customers that have been the most profitable over the last several months. Full paying customers, repeat customers and the ones that require the least effort from you.
Next, identify the way you acquired these customers. These will be the channels you’ll want to focus on with your future marketing efforts. You want to acquire more of your best customers.
2. Adjust Content On Your Website
It can take time to realign your business to focus on the top customer, but it’s worth it and it starts with simple steps like updating the content on your website.
Let’s say you’re a tour company and you have businesses, schools, families, couples and individuals that all come to visit.
But you’ve identified that couples are the best customers. Focus your website on selling your tours to couples.
It will feel like you’re leaving out the rest and that’s okay. You want the main focus to be on your top customer. You can still have information for the other groups, but make it secondary.
Image a homepage where the main information is about how great the tour is for couples. Then at the bottom there is a call to action that says, “We also welcome corporate events!” That links to a separate page.
3. Communicate Changes With Your Team
Even if your team is small you’ll want to clue them in on what’s going on with the customer. Explain to them that it’s to help the company operate more efficiently and succeed in the long run. Some will probably be happy that the goal is to work only with the best customers and not the ones that complain all the time for little money.
This is a slight change or revision of your company vision. And it’s your job to communicate that vision to your team so they know what’s going on and where you’re going.
4 Think Long-Term And To Say No
This is the most difficult step. You have to learn to turn away business if you have to. It’s a struggle and I’m always struggling with it. I still get customers at Ghost Blog Writers that I know probably won’t be a good fit in the long-term, but I bring them on anyway. And then a few months down the road things don’t work out.
But the goal is to think about how things will likely play out in the long-term. You only have so many resources and you want to use those resources on your top, most profitable customers.
So it might require saying no to people especially in the short-term, but it will be well worth it in the long-term for you, your team and most importantly for your business.
5. Revise As Necessary
I like to think of a business as something that’s always evolving. You’re going to have your basic principles, but you’ll learn more with each new day. And that includes learning more about your top customer. You’ll get more details about who they are or maybe in time the top customer will change a little and you’ll have to refocus.
That’s where you can revise if necessary as time goes on.
Check Out The Podcast
Sarah and I touched on this subject in an episode of The Shuda Show. We discuss Your Ideal Customer and how to focus on that person to grow your business in the best way possible.
Final Thought
Targeting the right customer is one of the most important aspects of running a business. Hopefully the tips above can help with your travel business!
Image: H.L.I.T.
