Thursday, July 20, 2006

You want Customers NOT clients!

This is going to be very one sided. I have strong views on this so get ready!

For me a customer is the type of person who you spend time with to fully understand their needs and wants. You tailor your approach to make the service or product they are buying from you as easy to buy as possible, you give them the best personal after service you can.

In return they value your help with the problem you can fix. This means they come back and buy more of your service. They also tell their friends what a good experience they had and tell them to come to you when they have the same need.

Before you know it you have an army of raving fans, who'll do your marketing and sales for you (as long as you keep up your end of the bargain).

On the other side. There are clients.

Clients are people you keep at a distance the owner of the relationship is your company, there is no give and take. Companies build client bases, huge faceless lists of money generators. They don't care about long term, they care about now.

There is a reason Solicitors and Prostitutes have clients (sorry to both professions)

I've tried to implement this in my company and it's tough, especially in sales, but this small difference makes a huge mental difference in the way people act.

For a much more lucid argument, with facts too, read this.

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