Evaluate Your Customer

As a customer, it can be hard to navigate the range of choices available to you. Marketing leaves us with tons of information, but not all of it is clear and helpful. Embrace a few ideas: ask for help, do research, and use your own common sense. Evaluating our customer is a critical step to building loyal customers who stay with us through the ups and downs of changing market conditions. You'll avoid being taken advantage of, which will lead to a long-term relationship with your customer.

This article will detail the three evaluation questions you need to answer when approaching potential customers—attitude, purchase intent and past behavior—and provide examples from the grocery business that illustrate these questions.

Attitude

Having a positive, cooperative attitude is essential to doing business in today's challenging environment. Here are some examples of the kind of attitude you should look for when evaluating your customers.

1. The Business Owner Leads by Example

When a business owner sets the tone for his or her employees, it's a direct indication of how he or she expects customers to be treated. I once worked with an owner who had lots of complaints from customers about employees' attitudes and lack of courtesy. It turned out that the owner started almost every day with a complaint, and employees followed his lead. He finally made a conscious decision to change his actions, and the customers responded in kind.

2. The Business Reflects the Culture of the Community

The business environment reflects the attitude of its customers, which is why many businesses have grown to resemble their customers. Consider launching a clothing line that's different from your fashion-forward customers—it isn't likely they'll be interested. Instead, find out what they wear and provide those items to them. In other words, match your business environment to that of your ideal customer; it's a win for everyone.

3. Employees Are Regular Customers

Take a close look at your employees' purchasing patterns. If you don't see any, there's a good chance that your employees don't shop in the store where they work. Why? They may not feel comfortable being seen shopping where they work, or they may feel that working in retail is beneath them. Either way, you're missing out on sales because of your employees' attitudes toward retailing.

4. Employees Have Friends Who Shop There

When employees have friends who regularly shop in the store where they work, there's a good chance that these friends are recommending their neighborhood store to others. There's no better way to promote word-of-mouth advertising than through employee referrals.

Pricing

Customers have a wide variety of options to choose from when it comes to products and services, and they're becoming even more sophisticated in their purchasing decisions. You can improve your chances of getting the sale by asking a few questions that will help you move that purchase-intent customer closer to buying.

1. What Price Points Are Available? (For example: "Why do you go out today?"; "When did you decide to become a customer?)

Businesses often have different price points for their customers than they do for their employees, which is confusing and probably unproductive.

2. What Are Their Current Thoughts on Price? (For example: "You mentioned that you've always paid the current price, but when I ask what you would pay for one of these items, you tell me that it's too much.")

It's important to know how your customer is thinking about prices.

3. Is Your Price Point Higher or Lower Than Your Customer's? (For example: "This item is on sale for $12, with an extra 15% off for a limited time. What would you like to do? Check out now or wait and see if there's a better offer later?")

If your price point is higher than your customer's, consider dropping the price. You will increase sales and build goodwill with your customers by making the price point match their expectations.

4. How Does Your Customer Feel About the Steepness of Your Discount? (For example: "You told me that you would have placed this order last week if there had been a 20% discount."; "The markdown was not as steep as what you say you're used to, and I can see that it hurt your feelings.")

Discovering how your customer feels about the steepness of discount can help you provide them with a better product at a better price. This information is critical to finding the right balance between customer loyalty and profitability.

5. How Does Your Customer Feel About the Act of Buying? (For example: "You're not used to buying anything in this store, and I see that you struggled with your purchase decision.")

Being able to figure out how and why your customer makes buying decisions will help you determine the right tactics for selling them. By understanding your customer's everyday decision-making process, you'll be able to provide more relevant information and more effective solutions for their specific needs.

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Conclusion

Think of the opportunities that are available to you as a retail leader. You can do great things—but you'll only know with real-life experience!

Related: 6 Steps To Attract Customers And Keep Them Engaged With Your Business