Understanding your customers can be a difficult task but one that is vital to every business. As a business owner, you will come into contact with a wide range of customers and understand how they operate with your business and products.
As attracting, retaining and keeping customers happy is crucial, we have identified 5 common types of customers and their different needs. If you want to understand how your customers think, their needs, and how to retain them, keep reading.
1. The loyal customer
Loyal customers are every business owner’s favourite type, but they come with various challenges.
Loyal customers sometimes expect a higher level of customer service because of their loyalty, which can sometimes be difficult to fulfil. This type of customer can sometimes put extra pressure on your sales team, but it is important to nurture this relationship.
Word of mouth and creating a positive discourse about your brand is an important business tactic for longevity, and it is the loyal customer who will naturally complete this.
It’s also vital that you take the loyal customer's opinion on board when making decisions about your business, as bigger decisions will directly impact this type of customer.
One way to reward loyal customers is with a points scheme that creates discounts when customers purchase multiple times from your brand.
How to retain loyal customers
- Give them the best possible service every time they are in your store
- Nurture the relationship with the loyal customer and make them feel special
- Listen to their opinion and consult them about business changes
- Encourage them to share their products on social media
2. Impulse customers
Impulse customers will make up a large percentage of your sales and are a great customer segment to focus on. The beauty of impulse customers is that they don’t have a specific shopping list in mind when they head out to purchase.
How to encourage impulse buying
This means that they can be enticed and persuaded into purchasing from you. There are a few tactics that you can use to encourage impulse purchasing, which include:
- Place dump bins at checkouts - This will inspire customers to grab items impulsively when they are checking out. You can be clever with your product offering within your dump bins and place items on sale or discounted to reduce high stock levels.
- Consider store layout - Carefully planning the layout of your shelves is important if you want to encourage impulse buying. Pair items that are usually bought together (for example, shampoo and conditioner, alcohol and soft drinks, hot dogs and buns) on the same shelves or very close together.
- Draw attention to products with risers - impulse buyers often don't have a plan when shopping; you can influence their decision to purchase by drawing attention to your products with risers.
You can nurture impulse customers by showcasing your new products and notifying them when a sale is happening. This will inspire curiosity in the customer, who will likely come to your store to check out the latest products.
3. Discount-based customers
Discount-based customers only shop during discounted periods or if you run a heavy promotion on a product they want.
These customers are important for cash flow and are customers who you should keep engaged with specifically for sale periods such as Black Friday and Christmas promotions.
Your store can attract discount-based customers by providing relevant literature and information. You can notify discount-based customers about your sales and discounts with pavement signs that will attract local footfall into your premises.
This customer type is usually not loyal to your business, and if there is another store offering a better discount, they will seek it out.
4. New customers
Attracting new customers to your business can be a hard challenge. Still, the upside to attracting new customers is that you can adopt tactics to turn them into loyal and repeat customers with the right first impression.
New customers will need more care and attention when it comes to customer service and will ask more questions about your service or goods. To ensure you impress the new customer, it is important to spend time with them and nurture their needs. Building this trust will increase the chances of repeat business, so listening to what customers want and fulfilling their needs is vital.
8 ways to attract new customers
- Offer introductory discounts
- Add chalkboards or pavement signs to the street outside your store.
- Use social media to create brand awareness.
- Utilise your loyal customer’s word of mouth.
- Attend community events and markets.
- Partner with a local business that complements your brand.
- Ask customers to leave reviews online.
- Give out free samples to those who pass your premises.
Attracting new customers is challenging but can be rewarding for your business in the long run, so continually engaging with new potential customers is important.
5. Well-researched customer
Another customer type is the consumer who has completed their research before purchasing. You may find that with this customer that there may be one or two questions that they want you to answer before they finally make their purchase.
These are often called the need-based customer base and will only purchase singular items from you and then leave. They can be hard to upsell and already have shopped around to find the right place to purchase from.
One way to attract these customers is to have trained staff who have strong product knowledge and are on hand to deliver answers in a friendly way to customers.
You should also have an online shop with detailed product descriptions and insights that customers can refer to before they enter your shop.
Check out the range of display and merchandising items at Displaysense
Cater to all customer types by exploring the display and merchandising range available at Displaysense today. You will find items such as dump bins for impulse purchasers, pavement signs for discount-based customers and more that you can use to attract every customer to your business.
