STUDENTS' CORNER - 159

Before we proceed to discuss Customer and his environment, let us briefly look into the types of customers generally known to the business world.

Customer is all; customer is always right; customer is the king of the market. This is how customer’s importance is brought out.

Potential Customer

Actually, everyone is a potential customer in the sense that he can buy your product at some point of time. Really, until he makes some purchase of your product or service, he is not yet a customer. Turning a potential customer into a real customer is the goal of your marketing team. This is too big a subject to be dealt with here. Constant market analysis enriched by marketing insights is an exercise that cannot be relaxed.

New Customer

A customer of a some other product of some other company is a new customer to you; it is up to you to attract him to your product. A new customer is an opportunity and a challenge. It is business wisdom that always aims at acquiring new customers because there has to be some minimum exit customers. Not to expect any exit customer is not to know business dynamics. Of course, every possible way must be adopted to retain the customer and at the same time be advised that there is bound to be some exit customer. Competitors are always on the prowl, so to say. Marketing experts say that acquiring a new customer costs to the company more than retaining a customer.

Online service is considered a boon to attract and retain a customer. A customer must be able to access you at any point of time of his convenience and he must be posted with all vital details about your product, inviting him to contact you for any assistance. Keep an eye on your competitors and their strategies to retain their market share if not to increase it. In short, make your customer feel valued genuinely beyond commercial interests. Impress your customer, existing and new.

 There are some more types of customers like Cost Conscious Price Buyers, Relationship Buyers, Discount Buyers so on. We shall deal with them in our next session.