Your Right Customer Isn't Only Yours (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

"Your Right Customer Isn't Only Yours
Just as you have more than one "right" customer, you very well may not be your customer's only answer. Price, convenience, desperation, necessity, your inability to meet all your customer's needs (or their unwillingness to rely on only one service provider, which is often good business practice) means you not only have competition for their business but you are being compared, perhaps unfairly, to other servioce providers."

Duas empresas bem diferentes, podem desenhar dois serviços completamernte diferentes, para dois tipos de clientes-alvo bem diferentes, mas não necessariamente para duas perssoas diferentes. A pessoa pode ser a mesma, mas em momentos ou circunstâncias diferentes. Por exemplo:

• comprar um vinho para oferecer vs comprar um vinho para consumo corrente;
• comprar uma série de artigos baratos (pão, peixe, congelados, ...) vs comprar frutas e legumes frescos (variedade, qualidade e frescura).

Esta dualidade na personalidade dos clientes tem o potencial para criar dois tipos de problemas a uma empresa.

"One is making a mistake about who your competitor is.
...
The second and graver danger: working too hard to accede to the wishes of a customer who is unprofitable or otherwise wrong for you. There is something worse than losing a customer, and that is bending over backward to keep one who loses you money. Any service design needs a degree of flexibility after all, each perfect customer is different. But once you start doing things that conflict with your brand, your strategy, and what you are designed to deliver, your attempt to not disappoint customers will inevitably mean you will disappoint yourself." 

Em Agosto de 2008 aprendi:

"the most important orders are 

the ones to which a company says 'no'."

"There are customers you have to say no to. Let's start with the ones you do not want: customers or clients who want what you are not prepared to deliver. Not what you cannot; what you won't. ... Cannot is about capability; won't is about strategy. In most cases, saying no to a potential customer is easier than saying goodbye to a current one, because a current customer was, at some point, your right one.
...
Deciding to part ways with a current client is about acknowledging that something has changed: their needs, your strategy, the chemistry of the parties involved. The more personal the nature of the service or the more direct the interaction is between you and the customers, the harder it is, because, well, it feels and is personal. When you are thinking about saying no, look at why:
Are you saying no because it is something you haven't done or do not want to?
If you haven't done it, why not? Is it resistance to change or genuinely a question of strategy? Is it something you do not do well enough, but could with training, practice, or judicious addition of capabilities or staff?"

Trechos retirados de "Woo, Wow and Win" de Thomas Stewart e Patricia O'Connel.