Optimizing For The Wrong Customer

Hey, we all do it.

If you’re a cause-driven or sustainable business, if you hear the cries of an unhappy client, you race to their aid to make things better. To do all you can to improve their situation and move them forward.

You refine your work to avoid that problem in future.

This has a name. It’s called, Optimizing for the wrong customer.

Here’s why:

The loud ones who never seems quite satisfied

You’ll have these. Sometimes the problems are yours to resolve. They’re opportunities to refine your work.

Other sometimes–and this is a hard pill to swallow when you care a lot–sometimes the problems aren’t yours to fix.

Sometimes, the problems are unrelated. Maybe they’re just complaining to get free stuff. Maybe they’re just in a bad mood. If you attempt to refine your marketing or your products for these people, you’ll simply move further away from the people you should really be focusing on.

So who are they?

The quiet ones doing good work and need your help

You’ll have these. They’re the customers who need a hand, but don’t necessarily make a fuss.

They need what you offer. They would respond very well to your marketing message if only you were brave enough to speak to them directly, rather than worrying about trying not to exclude the others.

When you learn to listen for–and respond to–those who are uniquely positioned to derive maximum advantage from your work… you’ll find your customer satisfaction rockets. The joy of serving increases. The difference you create in the market balloons.

Why not just focus on them, then?

Tip: If you’d like to see how to do that, go to BuiltForImpact.net.