As service business owners, we’ve faced many different kinds of customers.
Some clients are amazing people who truly appreciate the help we give and willingly pay for our service and expertise. And, unfortunately, some clients are less desirable, perhaps asking us to do additional unpaid work and then complaining about the result.
For most service business owners, the mindset is: “I’ll take the bad with the good.” They think it’s all part of the job. But it doesn’t have to be.
The reason why some customers are better than others is because YOUR service business actually specializes in serving a very specific kind of customer… you just might not realize it.
You might think that your service business specializes in whatever your trade is. But you actually specialize in a specific type of customer, too.
Let’s say you’re an electrician, so obviously you specialize in that trade. But let’s say that you love working with older retired people and you don’t like working with first-time homeowners. Guess what: You specialize in a customer who is older and retired.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the other customer – they’re just not YOUR perfect customer. Your demeanor and your brand and your mix of specific services and your prices all contribute to make you an ideal service provider to one group of customers and not to another.
So who are your perfect customers? They’re a combination of:
- The customers you absolutely love working with (the ones you’d serve for free if you could).
- The customers who can afford your services and happily pay you for them.
When you identify that group of customers, you identify your perfect customer. Here’s what to do with that information:
- Find out where they live in your city and focus your marketing there.
- Find out what kind of branding and marketing resonates with that group of people and create a brand and marketing that connects with them. (For example, if your perfect customer is new parents then you’ll say different things in your marketing than if your perfect customer is an empty nester).
- Create products and services that your perfect customer will find helpful.
You don’t HAVE to serve everyone. You don’t HAVE to put up with “bad” customers to get the good ones. Figure out who your perfect customer is and focus on serving them. And for the other customers who are “bad” (in reality, they’re not bad… they’re just not your perfect customer), find a service business that specializes in that group and refer the customer to them.
