Pleasing your customers is one of the best ways to edge out your competition.
After all, every customer has specific needs that they seek to attend to with your products or services.
The better you are at identifying and serving said customer needs, the more loyal your customers will become to your business.
Today, we will define customer needs and break down some of the top customer needs you should be catering to with your products and services.
Customer needs definition
Customer needs refer to the things that customers look for or require when purchasing a product or service from a business.
When a business understands their customer's needs, they can tailor their products and marketing plan to better serve their customers' needs
Now that we understand what customer needs are, let's show you the 5 main customer needs to serve:
- Price points
- convenience
- sustainability
- transparency
- control and options
5 Customer Needs to Serve
Price Points
Customers are incredibly sensitive to price. However, most businesses might interpret this as needing to lower their prices to beat out the competition.
In reality, customers often relate price to value. As long as the customer feels they are getting more value than what they are paying for, they will feel they are getting a good price.
In fact, customers will happily pay more for the same product if it comes with additional perks such as free shipping, great customer service, flexible returns policies and more.
Remember to always look at your pricing and relate it to the value you are offering to your customer.
Convenience
This might sound redundant, but you should always make it as easy as possible to buy and use your products and services.
Reducing friction points between your business and your customer can significantly boost your revenue. For example, Amazon’s introduction of 1-Click shopping is often credited as one of the factors that played into their success. Increasing their recurring revenue and customer retention.
Remember, there’s always room for improvement when it comes to how easy it is to buy or use your product.
Sustainability
Sustainability has quickly become an important factor in daily purchasing decisions for customers. As of 2020, over 2/3rd of North American customers prefer products and services that are eco-friendly or sustainable.
Tailoring your products or services towards sustainability can help you differentiate yourself from other competitors and can even become a selling point for your product.
Identify how you can make your product or service more sustainable (even with just packaging) and plan on implementing said improvements.
Transparency
Customers dislike faceless companies. After all, they often come to your business with a problem they are looking to solve.
How you respond to your business errors, outages, product problems and more will paint a lasting image in your customers’ minds.
Remember to be honest, transparent, and fair to your customers. At the end of the day, they are the key to the success of your business.
Control and Options
Customers love options and control over said options. After all, many of your customers will want different experiences related to your product and service.
How many customization options do you offer to your customers? And more importantly, how easy do you make it for your customers to change said options?
It should not take a 1-hour phone call with customer service to easily upgrade your subscription plan with any business.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction is key to any business and its longevity.
After all, happy customers buy from your business more often and stick around for longer. Want to learn more? Read our guide on what customer satisfaction is and why it’s so important.
