Not all Customers are Best Customers
by David Rosen | Senior Vice President
As I was preparing for an upcoming panel at Shop.org’s marketing workshop, I was asked “How can a brand turn all customers into ‘best customers?’”My reaction was a profound “You can’t” – nor should you even try.
Customer analysis of company after company has solidified my understanding that only about five percent (in extreme cases ten percent) of any company’s customers should be considered best customers.Marketers who attempt to turn all customers into best customers run the risk of losing the special, differential treatment that the real best customers expect and legitimately deserve.However, in almost every circumstance there is an opportunity to significantly increase the number of best customers. Two segments represent the highest potential for migration:
- Customers that fall into the “next best category” (i.e. the segment of approximately fifteen percent of customers that comprise the next thirty percent of sales and profits
- New customers who self identify through what they purchase or other traits (e.g. their zips, their acquisition channel, through friend referrals) that they are more likely to become best customers
And now a self-serving pitch. To learn more about identifying and differentially serving best customers, join me and Ed Foy, Jr., CEO of eFashion Solutions at Shop.org’s Online Marketing Workshop April 7-9 in
