Are Your Customers Advocates Or Users?
You don’t have any customers: people will give you their custom while it suits them (not you). There are no exceptions.
So what do you really have? I would suggest you have either advocates or users.
Users are people who will buy from you because it happens to suit them at that moment (usually because of price or convenience), but they are not loyal to you, and will not return to you, or buy from you again if a more convenient, or better priced alternative arises in the meantime.
Advocates are people who use your services because it gives them pleasure (usually because you meet their emotional needs at a price they are more than happy to pay): these people are fiercely loyal to you and will stick with you despite people rising around you with better prices or more convenient services (up to a point of course! ).
For example, I am an advocate of my accountant, but a user of my solicitor. I am an advocate of Sainsburys but a user of Poundland.
This is a very important point, because users will not remain loyal when competition arises: and, let’s face it, competition is arising all around you all the time, no matter what business you are in.
- High street shops are losing out to more convenient and better priced online competition
- Pubs to coffee shops and Home Entertainment which gives a better experience at a lower price
- Hotels without great reviews on trip advisor are forced to trade through intermediaries at cut-price deals
- Service Industries are quickly losing market share to quick moving high quality services based in India and the Far East
You only have two options: either be the cheapest or be the one with the most advocates.
