Do your customers think about you as much as you think about them? « Website Design Brighton

Do your customers think about you as much as you think about them?

November 15, 2010 in Beachside Blog, Blog

Beachside Creative are Service Providers and as such we spend a lot of our time thinking about our clients. In fact 95% of our day is dedicated to providing services to our clients, 2% is spent on our own business and 4% is spent on account keeping (in case you feel the need to point it out I am aware that this = 101% and I would suggest we probably still need an additional 2% to keep up with the accounts). This client focus may really only be reflective of the service industries, however my experience outside this area tells me that this is fairly standard.

The point is we spend all day thinking about our clients, roughly an 80/20 split between existing clients and new clients. We also have a range of suppliers and strategic alliances and contractors; however as with most businesses we rarely think about them and always assume that they will be there when we need them. Sadly this is not always the case. This got me thinking…

Do we spend too much time focusing on the green arrow and not enough on the red? It’s logical to assume that if you are in business to make money then you will be focused on where that money comes from, i.e. your clients and the money you spend to acquire those clients is merely a cost of doing business.

That just doesn’t seem right. I know that while we spend a lot of time thinking about our clients, we would also like them to spend a little time thinking about us and not just in terms of when a deadline will be met or a piece of work delivered. We want our clients to think of us as a partner, someone who can be relied upon for more than just the services we provide.

The answer it seems lies in your client’s perception of you. Are you a red arrow or a green arrow? Can you be both? Does the value you add for your clients translate above the work you deliver? We all need to be mindful of how we are perceived but if we want our clients to think of us even half as much as we think of them, then we need to make a shift in the way they see us.