We are moving ahead to the next piece in the canvas, that is, Customer Relations.
In previous chapters, we talked about the need to listen to customers and to solve their problems in order for our businesses to be successful. However, this is only the one of the actions required for customer relationships. The full process involves a three-step approach:
(1) To get customers you need to solve their problems (I talked about this in the chapter on Value Proposition)
(2) You should strive to make your existing customers loyal to your products and make each of them spend more money on your products (I will talk more about this in the module on Sales and Customer Requisition)
(3) You should grow the total number of customers.
In order to be successful in these 3 areas, you need to add value and differentiate your products from those of your competitors. They must be either cheaper or offer something more than what your competitors do. Do you recall the earlier example about the hair salon (chapter on Value Proposition)? How can your business stand out in the crowd?
Let me give you another example. Let’s say you are selling precious stones and other gems to wholesalers. How do you get, keep and grow your customers?
Either you sell your stones cheaper than the market average, or you clean and polish them to make them look better than other stones in the market. This way your customers will prefer buying your rubies, sign agreements with you and since they know your products are better than others, they probably will buy other gemstones from you as well. In either case, you need to find ways to provide the same quality for a lower price, or better quality for the same price.
Take away: Think about how you will get, keep and grow your customers.
Esther’s customer relationships
My value proposition defines my customer relationship. You may recall that it is Providing Affordable Fresh Pumpkin Products and this is how I work to get my customers.
Once consumers realized that my products were of higher quality than the competing businesses, they have continued to buy my products and have become loyal customers. In fact, many of my competitors have had to close down. I have kept my promise and stood by my value proposition even in hard times.
There are two key ways to your expansion:
1. You can expand your existing product lines
My customers are quite curious and love to try new products when I test them. When there is great feedback for a particular flavor I start introduce them in my store. For example, I was experimenting with pumpkin jam to give it different flavors (cinnamon, lemon etc.). My loyal customers were really excited and came all the way to my store to test it out.
2. You can diversify and create new products
Over time, I have created new products, such as pumpkin wine and pumpkin juice. To make sure my customers like these products before I start produce in greater numbers, I organize special testing days. I do that when sales are slow and I have more time. I offer customers free samples of the new products.
This strategy has really help me to continue to dialogue and consultation with my customers and get continuous feedback from them. In that way I know in advance whether the product would be a success or not, which has also helped me prevent and mitigate risks to my business.
What is really fantastic is that my existing customers are excited about most of my new products. So, while the number of customers has grown over time, I have been able to increase my sale with the same group of customers by introducing new product lines.
Use of social media
I am also excited about using social media. I have used it to announce my testing days to existing customers. I have also been able to engage with potential customers about their preferences. While online engagement cannot help with testing new flavors, it has helped me to test out the packaging and labelling. I have asked people which labels they prefer and what type of packaging would make them buy my products. It has been challenging to get these conversations going but with friends and family helping me out, my engagement on social media has really grown in the last year.
Take away: Write down how you will get, keep and grow your customers in your canvas now.