Who are your clients and who are your customers?

Who are your clients and who are your customers?
 

In pretty much every business you can differentiate between clients and
customers. For example, in a real estate office - your clients are you
landlords and vendors - they have entrusted you with their asset to manage
or sell. Your customers are your tenants and prospective buyers. In the
retail sector your clients are those loyal ones - the ones that come to you
every time they need an X. In the cafe business, they are the ones that are
there every morning for a coffee, they bring their clients to coffee
meetings at your business.  They refer friends and relatives, and they are
happy to see your business flourish. If you are an events coordinator - you
may have entertainers that make up a big part of the show, and you need to
look after them - they are your customers, but your clients are the agents
of the entertainers that are bringing you 'talent' time after time.

Both clients and customers are an integral part of your business. And the
goal is to 'upgrade' everyone to client status. If you own a butcher shop
for example, your clients are the ones who buy all of their meat at your
shop - they don't buy 90% of their meat at the supermarket, and come to you
for a weekend barby. Your weekend barby buyers as customers are still
vitally important, and you want to service them in such a way that they want
to become clients.

We need to be over-servicing our clients so they remain clients, and our
customers so they want to become clients.  Take the time to identify the
clients in your business - write them down, so you and your team can make
sure that you do continue to over-service them.

Depending on your business over-servicing can mean many different things.
It can mean giving your client a free cup of coffee when they have forgotten
their wallet, it can mean giving them some movie tickets to say 'thank you',
it means giving them 'a bit extra' here and there.  Most of all it means -
putting them first, look after them before anyone else, and make sure you
don't cross them - because a client can grow your business at a rate of
knots by referrals, they can also do damage with complaints.

Take a minute to identify the clients and customers in your business - maybe
its time to 'go the extra mile' for a client or two.

Here's to a great week in business.  TK