Meet your new customer: the ever-connected, always-on, highly opinionated, on-the-move, super sophisticated customer. It’s a new world. Social, mobile, and cloud have spun a tapestry of new technologies from location services to communities to new business apps. It’s fundamentally changing how people interact with businesses and with each other.
Armed with more information - and options - than ever
before, this new breed of customer operates in ways that businesses
should embrace and leverage to their advantage before their competitors
beat them to it. Because in this new world, customer loyalty is the
currency by which companies will live or die.
But first, you first need to understand these new
customers. Having a firm grasp on their habits and needs will make your
job far easier. Here are five characteristics of your customers that are
changing the game for your business.
1. Connected
Your customers have no “off button”. They live in the
cloud, with the world’s knowledge in their pocket. Information, people,
and things are at their fingertips always. They are 24/7 in real-time
and assume that everyone else is too - including you.
2. Mobile
Your customer is everywhere - on the web, in your store,
talking to sales associates and using local, social, and touch apps
wherever they go. They expect to connect with businesses across many
channels, in real-time, and make it easy for them to buy from and
interact with you.
3. Social
Whether it is asking friends for a recommendation, reading a
review, or getting help from a community site, social networks are the
way your customer learns and talks about your company and your products.
All of these interactions are opportunities to get to know customers
better and understand how to delight them.
4. Demanding
Your customers have a more sophisticated set of needs than
ever, and their purchase decision is based on many factors, not just
price. They are expecting your best. Things happen quickly in the
digital age, so when customers have a question, it needs to be answered
fast. Sales and service teams need to have everything at their
fingertips - even from the road.
5. In-the-Know
With a wealth of information at their fingertips, your
customers use knowledge as power. From finding experts in communities to
mastering comparison-shopping on the go, they learn about products from
many places to find just the right match for their needs.
Once you have a solid understanding of your customers, how do you connect to them?
The companies that rally around these customers and align
their entire business - sales, service, marketing, IT - to engage
customers on their terms are called “customer companies.”
