The Power of One Customer
Don’t under-estimate the power of one customer.
When you start a business, the next thing you expect is for customers to start patronising you. Whatever the type of business you do, whether online or brick and mortar, whether you sell products or you offer services; you need customers.
Of course, no one will ever be satisfied having just one customer. You need more than one customer to build a healthy and sustainable business. However, in your quest to get many customers, you should not overlook the power of one customer. It does not matter how large your customer base it, all the customers came one by one before they grow to become large. Supposing you have a goal for your business to have fifty new customers, the fifty customers will not come at once. If no customer shows up, it is difficult to attain that objective. The moment you win one customer, you are already a step towards reaching your goal.
Why am I talking about the power of one customer? The way you will grow your business by adding one customer at a time, the same way the business can crumble if you keep losing your customers one by one. This is why the need for good customer care comes in. When a customer is satisfied, he keeps coming back to buy from you. It is easier to retain a customer than to secure a new one. So, if by reason of lack of good customer service, you lose one customer, you may need to double your efforts before you can secure a new one. One thing some people don’t know is that, when you lose one customer, you have lost future sales and other new potential customers. Who are these potential customers? They are the customers that would have been referred to you by a satisfied customer. The case becomes worse if a dis-satisfied customer spread negative news about your business.
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Therefore, it is important to recognise that each of your customers is unique. You should try to satisfy their needs. Treat every customer as if he is the only one customer you have ever gotten. People don’t have problem doing this when they are just starting out their business. But as the number of customers keeps increasing, they don’t give the customers the care and attention they used to receive. Don’t think that your customers will be happy about it. Few of them may complain while some may not say anything.
If something is not done on time to regain the confidence of these customers, they may soon disappear. The question is that, how are you treating your customers? Do you care whether they are satisfied or not? Do you have a system to measure your client satisfaction? If you have never done this before, I suggest you put a customer complaint/feedback box in your office or shop. What you will read may surprise you.
In conclusion, don’t under-rate the power of one customer. Customer is king. This statement is powerful. In most cases, we just quote the statement but we don’t actually sit down to think about it. How will you treat a king if he pays you a visit? I know you will give him a royal treat. Then, I enjoin you to do likewise to your customers. Whether your customer is one of your top customers or not, every customer deserves royal treat. You don’t know which customer will turn to be a back bone of your business tomorrow. If a customer doesn’t have capacity to buy much today, that does not mean he cannot grow to become a major player tomorrow. Even, if there is no likelihood that the customer can grow, he may refer another customer to you which may have capacity to buy in large volume.
Let me just share this experience with you.There was a client of ours in an audit firm where I started my career. He owned a small business which I thought he should have registered as a sole proprietorship if he sought professional advice before he started the business. Having registered the business as a limited liability company, he was under obligation to prepare and file the audited financial statements of his business at the end of each financial year. He then approached our firm to serve as the external auditors to his company. If I was in a position to take decision then, I wouldn’t have taken such an account. Our Managing Partner accepted the offer and gave him letter of engagement. This client could not even afford to pay the audit fee on time. To cut the whole story short, this same client helped our firm secure another client. This new client was the biggest we had ever had. It was a government agency where his uncle was serving as a Director General. Of course, we still followed due process but favour made us to stand out among the equals.
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Guess what? This agency has offices in all the States of the country and that gave our audit staff to travel round the country in the course of our audit. It was actually a major breakthrough for us not just for that year alone but for subsequent years as we owned the account for few years. That is just the power of one customer. One customer can bring about turnaround to your business. That one customer that seems insignificant today may be the key that will unlock the success of your business. No matter how big your customer base is, it is still advisable you maintain one customer policy.