Why is a customer focus important?
When a customer approaches your firm to do business, the top-of-mind concern of the customer is the customer’s own problem.
- If you begin your conversation with the customer by discussing the customer’s problem (and, once you understand the problem, how you can solve it), you will build an immediate rapport with the customer. After all, you are addressing what is important to the customer.
- If you instead begin your conversation with the customer by talking about yourself, the customer will not care. You are not addressing what is important to the customer.
You can incorporate a customer focus into any content that you create, including case studies for Inland Empire businesses.
Additional information on customer focus
Here is a sampling of what John E. Bredehoft of Bredemarket has written on the topic of customer focus.
(3/19/2023) When You Wear a Blindfold, You Cannot See
I know that “when you wear a blindfold you cannot see” is one of those seemingly obvious truths, like “the heat was hot” (the band America) or “water is wet” (a preschool teacher).
You would never intentionally blindfold yourself while driving a car, or while performing any other activity that requires your vision.
But when we conduct business, do we unintentionally blindfold ourselves when we don’t focus on our customers’ needs?
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/03/19/when-you-wear-a-blindfold-you-cannot-see/
(3/4/2023) Lockheed Martin’s Anti-biofouling Customer Focus
It’s nice to claim a “customer-first mentality,” but Lockheed Martin has provided an example of how it demonstrates customer focus.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/03/04/lockheed-martins-anti-biofouling-customer-focus/
(10/30/2022) Six questions your content creator should ask you
I’ve written ad nauseum on the difference between benefits and features, so for this question five about benefits I’ll just briefly say that written content works best when it communicates how the solution will help (benefit) the customer. A list of features will not make a difference to a customer who has specific needs. Do you meet those needs? Maintain a customer focus.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/10/30/six-questions-your-content-creator-should-ask-you/
(10/25/2022) Users are not stupid; systems are
And when I write, I need to continuously keep my customers (or, more accurately, my customers’ customers) in mind. I’m writing for them, not for me. Create messages that resonate with them. And if the audience is non-technical, don’t assume that they know what SEO and URL and HTTPS mean.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/10/25/users-are-not-stupid-systems-are/
(8/25/2022) Why Visionaries Keep Their Mouths Shut
One of those visions was Jobs’ vision of the iMac. People anticipated that Jobs’ return to the company he co-founded would result in some new insanely great thing. But when Jobs talked about the iMac, he didn’t say, “I’m Steve Jobs, and this is my next revolution.” Instead, he took a customer focus and talked about what his next revolution would do.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/08/25/why-visionaries-keep-their-mouths-shut/
(8/2/2022) Extremely targeted marketing (customer focus)
If you’ve read the Bredemarket blog for any length of time, you already know that customer focus ensures that your customers will pay attention to your message. (TL;DR Customers are happier when you talk about them than when you talk about yourself.)
Did you know that customer focus also increases your revenue?
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/08/02/extremely-targeted-marketing-customer-focus/
(6/26/2022) Why does Your Inland Empire Business Need Case Studies?
When marketing your Inland Empire business to potential customers, you don’t start the conversation by talking about yourself. You start the conversation with a customer focus by talking about your potential customer’s needs.
And what better way to speak about your potential customer’s needs than by talking about other customers who have faced the same problem, and who solved the problem using a solution from your business?
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/06/26/why-does-your-inland-empire-business-need-case-studies/
(5/4/2022) Is Calendly customer focused?
If you want to initiate something at your company, it’s always good to note that it will help the company make money. Focusing on customers seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised to learn how many companies focus on themselves rather than their customers.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/05/04/is-calendly-customer-focused/
(4/29/2022) Why the Toyota Arena’s square footage is unimportant in Zurdo vs. Boesel marketing…or YOUR marketing
Why not talk about the arena at the beginning of the fight announcement? Because fight promoters are smart. Fight promoters know that to make a sale, they need to maintain a customer focus.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/04/29/toyota-arena-zurdo-boesel-marketing/
(4/27/2022) Who pays you? Sarah Greesonbach knows
I could literally write between 2,800 and 3,200 words (geddit?) on this topic, but Sarah Greesonbach expressed the thought much more succinctly.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/04/27/who-pays-you-sarah-greesonbach-knows/
(3/12/2022) How Inland Empire West Businesses can attract new customers via testimonials, AND (3/12/2022) How identity businesses can attract new customers via case studies
Why TWO posts, each of which is targeted to SEPARATE Bredemarket social media channels?
Because I need to address the needs of DIFFERENT types of customers, by using my skill set as applicable.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/03/12/how-inland-empire-west-businesses-can-attract-new-customers-via-testimonials/ and https://bredemarket.com/2022/03/12/how-identity-businesses-can-attract-new-customers-via-case-studies/
(2/21/2022) Two truths and no lies, the proposals edition
Did Mark ask Carlos about what Carlos likes to see in the meat he purchases?
Did Mark ask Carlos where the meat should be delivered?
No.
Mark’s attitude was that if he shared these important facts about Guasti Meat, Carlos would be so impressed that he would immediately start to do business with such a respectable company.
This is obviously ridiculous, but many companies act in the same fashion when writing proposals. When they write their executive summaries, the first thing that they talk about is themselves.
Who cares?
More at https://bredemarket.com/2022/02/21/2truths0lies/
(5/10/2021) Communicating benefits (not features) to identity customers (Part 1 of 3)
As you can see, benefits are customer-centric.
(11/23/2020) Positioning a sole proprietorship
(Andrea) Olson believes that company positioning is mostly a lost art, and that some attempts to establish a unique company marketing position don’t really work in practice. For example, a Company X claim that it is “customer-focused” will only be effective if Company Y says that it is “not customer-focused.” (This doesn’t happen.)
More at https://bredemarket.com/2020/11/23/positioning-a-sole-proprietorship/
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