Who are the best: the big invoice or the engaged customers?
It is great to have customers that allow you to invoice large amounts of money as this keeps the company running and growing in revenue.
However the most valuable customers are those that make suggestions for improvement, report errors or defects in order to improve your products and solutions. It is not just money they bring to the company but mainly their market and business intelligence, knowledge and experience.
They participate for improving your solutions.
Thus the most valuable customers in B2B are those customers that communicate and make remarks on your products: they engage in your future.
Engaged customers
These customers challenge the company and management, but at the same time help the company prepare for changes in the market and future demands.
Instead of relentless producing or generating the same stuff, these customers will make sure you never will sit back and forget to adapt your solutions to the ever changing needs of the market.
Indifferent customers
The danger with indifferent customers is that you don’t know:
- What they are thinking.
- What they have on their mind for the future.
- What they are already preparing a next decision without you knowing.
Not communicating or even not complaining customers are a risk for your future.
Engaged customer benefits
Benefits for the customers:
On the other hand, the employees or managers of these engaged companies will get some satisfaction by experiencing the changes made to your solutions.
This adds enormously to the relationship with these managers and employees as a part of the solution becomes “theirs” being based upon their ideas or suggestions.
Benefits for the vendor:
For the vendor this type of managers or employees is a big win as these people:
- Provide market insight and market demands at hardly any cost
- Allow to learn from their experience
- Eliminate errors and avoid big mistakes for your solutions
- Build a relationship with your company
- Will probably recommend your solution to others as they are proud of their own suggestions
It is hard or even impossible to influence or generate this engagement, as the first reaction needs to come from your customers themselves. Once the conversation started, you need to stay open and positive for their remarks and suggestions.
Still you can make the engagement easier by:
- Providing convenient means of communication
- Responding quickly and positively to their messages.
Big invoice customer: the current – Engaged customer: the future
The big invoice companies are is very valuable for the current situation of a company, whereas the engaged companies are important for the future of your company.
It is rather uncommon that the big invoice companies are also your most engaged companies as the size of the company creates a bigger gap between vendor and user than in case of a small or medium sized company.
Still it can happen that your biggest customer is also your best engaged customer.
How about your customers? Engaged customers or indifferent customers?
