Hearing from Your Key Customer Groups

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.”

– W. Edwards Deming

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Every company has multiple key customer groups. Each group has specific needs that they would like your organization to satisfy.

Defining those groups and their needs is one of the most critical tasks an organization can perform. It’s like getting the answers to the test before you have to take it!

The test will come later when you measure these groups’ satisfaction and engagement. The “cheating” begins when you start asking your customers what they want.

In my other company, True North Companies, we specialization in the development and construction of charter schools. It is a very specific niche that leaves us with multiple key customer groups.

The first customer group are the educators or the principal of the school. They have specific requests about how the school is built and how it operates. They are focused on form and, generally, have little built in concern for price. Which is good. They need to be and are focused on building a fantastic educational system for their students. Since charter schools can be shut down if they do not outperform their peers, this level of focus is required.

Our second customer group are the ones who care about price. This group is made up of the board of directors of the charter school. These boards are typically filled with a cross-section of skillsets that the school will need to succeed – bankers, lawyers, CPA’s and parents are all on the boards. One of the board’s primary responsibilities is to manage the budget of this start up educational enterprise. They care about price – both the price of the asset and the long term cost to operate.

So, our two primary customer groups – educators and board members, can often have competing priorities. The educators need more functionality and space (which generally requires more money) and the board needs to make a budget work that is typically 25% lower than what your local school district has to work with.

How do you make both happy? We listen and we respond. We make sure that everyone is fully aware of the cost (both current and long term) of additional requests for space and functionality. We help both customer segments weigh the costs and benefits of adding vs. taking away from the facilities.

In the end, no one gets everything they want, but they were fully informed of their options and the cost ramifications of those options. Based on that data, they made the best decisions for the long term success of their school.

If we did all of that right, we finish our project with two very happy customer groups.

What about you? Who are your key customer groups and how do you ensure they are happy?

Need help getting started? Contact us now via our website or just give us a call at 229-375-5613 and we’ll help you get going.

Thank you for being a part of our values driven community!

Image courtesy of http://deavanesium.deviantart.com/art/Old-key-175052408

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