16 TYPES OF ECOM CUSTOMERS, AND INSIGHT TO CONVERT THEM
Customer acquisition cost, conversion percentage, organic ( repeat) business are and have been the governing metrices of the ecom business.
As that became clear to us (the founding team of abof.com )in 2015, Significant experiments were conducted around types of customer and how to deal with them, lead by the CEO Prashant Gupta, CMO Ashim etc. My interest in consumer psychology kept me experimenting further even in the B2B world.
As per the Inmoment’s US Retail CX Trends Report , about half of the customers leave you for better experiences with competition. In the world where acquiring customer is a large cost, this indeed is a massive no.
Solve, different type of customer has to be dealt in different ways !
People come with different belief systems, which determines their buying Behavior. Anthropology a stream of design thinking clearly establishes the impact of cultures, linguist, Human biology, age, gender, upbringing in guiding their need from shopping.
1/3rd of the customers leave the Brand/ site after one bad experience, and today they have options, which is available to them on a click.
There are three broad classification and 16 detailed classification, which seems to attract different marketing, product, discounts, delivery strategies.
Source : Revechat.com
Evaluating Customers :
1. The Lookers
Lookers are the customers who are just browsing through your services and probably looking through your competitors as well. They’ve shown some interest, but they are yet to decide on anything.
How to deal with them?
- Make your website look attractive and engaging. More-so for lifestyle categories. Make sure that you drive the onlooker’s attention to the right places by planning the right website engagement strategies, Like new season launch, Top 10, visually attractive stuff.
- Remove any obstacles or objections on this initial stage and focus
on good customer experience. Even small elements such as intrusive
pop-ups, disturbing ads, difficulty navigating, or lack of quick customer
support can turn them away.
2.
Discount Customers
Discount
customers are interested in your product only because you are offering it at a
discounted price !! There’s no way that discount customers are going to buy it at
the usual price.... They get delight in shopping at discount. % plays larger role for them, rather the landed price. Notion of money saved is large on them.
How to deal with them?
- Make them understand the value you are adding even at
the discounted price. This will make the customer feel that they did get a
good deal. Thus they will value your product more and will stick around
for longer. Like coupons, freebees, free quick delivery etc.
- Tele-callers , bots, notifications can help retain these customers, by offering them great discounts, and then cross selling them.
These types of customers have done their research, compared you with your competitors, and are looking for the best possible option. For researchers, just attractive websites or good discounts won’t work. Features comparison, establishing your offering as better would entice them. Best is if recommendation engine is third party. They trust it more.
How
to deal with them?
- You can change researchers’ decisions by adding social
proof like testimonials, ratings, reviews, influencer comments, repeat buys count, gold status etc. They will look into
every detail. So it is best to go all out and provide details as extensive
as possible.
- Add wireframes, white papers, and feature comparisons to your
website to help them understand your services better.
- Focus on your value proposition. Make them realize that
you’re offering something that no else is going to provide them, product content, benefits, branding around it, like stretch, Supima cottons, Merino wools etc.
4.
Impulse Customers
Impulse
customers have not really planned on purchasing your products, or any products
for that matter. They make purchase decisions at the spur of the moment.
How
to deal with them?
- Provide them with a seamless experience throughout
the funnel. Remove even the slightest obstacles and make the whole purchase
journey a slippery slide eg, site glitch, speed of loading, undue deviation, Auto answering the questions. Copy should be crisp.
- Time-sensitive offers work best with these kinds of customers. So offer them time-bound deals that create urgency.
5.
Unsure Customers
These
types of customers are similar to lookers but are more confused and unsure
about which direction to move forward.
How
to deal with them?
- Make all your contact channels such as Bot, live chat, telecallers, Sales representative ( FOS) etc options easily available. This step can turn their decision in your favor.
- Focus heavily on your USP and value proposition in the navigation path or the MLPs being shared to them on whatsapp. Propose
unique solutions, and guide them
through every step.Once they make up their mind, they are likely to stay with you longer.
6.
Looking-to-Switch Customers
The looking-to-switch customers who have subscribed to a similar product or service from competition, but are unsatisfied with them. This is why they are looking at you as an alternative. The good news is that these customers are ready to spend. All you got to do it to nudge them in your direction.
How
to deal with them?
- The first thing is you must do is research your
competitors. Find out what they are missing or where they are
lagging. Try to cover these gaps with your services. Eg, speed of delivery, Easy return process, Single day delivery of Multiple orders, Target linked schemes, Secondary sales push inside the retail store( B2B), Redemption of credits/ gold coins etc.
- Speak to customers and find their anguish or objections, and offer instant solution to them, even if its costly to you. Once again, focus on your USP and value proposition. Let them know
what makes you a better choice.
Experiencing, Onboarded Customer:
7. New Customers
New
customers have just made their first purchase. They are still trying to
understand your product and need guidance. This is the stage where you make a
lasting first impression.
How
to deal with them?
- Have a smooth, onboarding process. Guide them through each step and
provide them with comprehensive guidance. Through the brief popups, navigation guidance, good visuals, minimum text, thumb friendly, highlight of the benefits like delivery in 2 hours, highest discount etc.
- Did you know that the #1 reason customers switch to your
competitors is that they feel unappreciated? Hence, you should try
and make the extra effort by providing options such as live chat,
video chat, and co browsing.
8.
Active Customers
Active customers are the ones who are actively using your products or services. But they’re not your loyal customers yet. This means, if offered a better deal by your competitors, active customers are likely to switch.
How to deal with them?
- Delivering best in class customer service is
the key here. Continuous engagement and interactions will let your new
customers attach to your brand more. If you guide such new customers
throughout their journey, through help of feet on street, chats, notifications with links etc.
- High quality supply. Lots of MP companies lack the focus on supplies in pursuit of the demand. However quality supply which can landup quickly is highly valued over the period of time and by the sticky customer. High quality supply should be top priority for sustaining repeat business.
9. Lapsed Customers
Things went wrong, and these customers have left you already. But don’t lose hope yet. There’s still time to fix things and earn your lapsed customers back. Again, being quick and proactive is the key here. You need to identify these lapsed customers as soon as possible. If grievance of these customers are addressed, they shift to loyal category. Also, remember that you have an advantage over your competitors here. Your lapsed customers are familiar with you. And switching would mean that they need to go through the onboarding process all over again. This is why you must proactively take steps to convince them to purchase from you again.
How
to deal with them?
- After segmenting these lapsed customers, your first step should be
to find out why they left you. Did they have any customer
service complaints? Did they get any better deals with your customers? Credit issues, return issues, poor quality, delayed delivery, delayed querry response, fit issues, usage issues, setting up issue etc....
- Next, fix these issues ASAP. Then let your lapsed customers know
that you’ve fixed them. Reach out to them, apologize, and let them
know that you’ve resolved all their pain points. By doing this,
you have a fair chance of getting them back.
10.
Unhappy Customers
Unhappy clients are the most delicate ones to handle. Such customers have made purchases from you but are unsatisfied with your brand or your services. You can find them through different signals like customer service complaints, stopping auto-renewals for subscriptions, downgrading their plans, or negative reviews/comments on social media. They are not yet gone. Not tending to unhappy customers at the right time can lead to increased churn rates or even negative backlash and bad publicity.
How
to deal with them?
- Monitor your customer service channels and social media for
complaints or negative comments. Using this, you can identify
unhappy customers before it is too late.
- Then you can actively follow up with your customers. You can follow
up through different support channels like live chat, asking for feedback, outward calling agents. By doing this, you’re
nipping the problem in the bud and stopping some mildly unhappy customers
from turning into outright angry customers.
- Once you’ve identified these customers, talk to them, understand
their complaints and objections. Then start fixing them ASAP. This step
can turn your unhappy customers into loyal customers. And reduce more unhappy customers and also improve on product or service.
11.
At-Risk Customers
At-risk customers are similar to unhappy customers, but unlike them, they are not unhappy. Rather, at-risk customers may have stopped using your services because they lost interest, opted for your competitors, or got busy with something else. In Indian ecom, this is a large issue as competition is trying to woo away your customer by better price or costly service. Lack of continuous improvement of services and product are highly essential to hold customer who can move away at a click.You can identify these customers again through specific signals. For example, if it’s been a long time since they logged in or used your services indicates that they are going to churn.
How
to deal with them?
- You should try to get in touch with these customers
personally to check why they haven’t been using your services
lately. But you should ensure that you’re not bothering them this way.
- Some customers may have already made up their minds, but a few
might change their decision based on your interaction with them. So this
is definitely worth a try. Again, understand their pain points and
go out of your way to fix them.
- Smaller companies do this well. And Bigger companies get stuck with the complicated process and arrogance. This should be watched.
12.
Referral Customers
Referral customers are those who have been referred to your brand by one of your loyal customers. So it’s highly likely that they know very little about your services. Also, your loyal customers have convinced these customers to go with you. So their hopes may be really high with you. It’s also possible that they are completely lost and clueless about which direction to move towards. This happens more in B2B space, which is deeply driven by word of mouth between retailers. And retailers are prompt to experiment to increase their sales / profit.
How
to deal with them?
- Referral customers may be here because they are interested in some specific products or services like lower credit, price advantage, running promotion like free shipping, referral coupon schemes etc. that your loyal customer told them about. So, it’s best to interact with such customers and figure out their expectations from you.
Loyal, Promoting customers
13. Loyal Customers
Loyal customers are the best kind of customers to have for your business. Repeat customers types keep coming back to you for different products and services and they seem to be impressed with your brand. In Indian context, this is THE LARGEST lever to potentially make profit. By no Consumer acquision cost and higher value of purchase, low default, low returns etc. Apart from keeping them with you for a longer time, you should understand what factors made them loyal in the first place.
How
to deal with them?
- Feature your loyal customers on your case studies or get their
testimonials. This will make them feel more valuable, and you get more
social proof to add to your website.
- Connect with them and understand their success story. Understand
what they like about your brand/ site and what made them your loyal customers in
the first place. Use their experiences and try to replicate the
same for all your other customers. At abof.com there were about more than 1/3rd of customer who became organic soon and became the lever to improve financials.
14.
Lifetime Customers
Lifetime
customers are your loyal customers, but even better! They have opted for the
lifetime subscription of your product or service. While this is a rrare species in online world.
How
to deal with them?
- Since they are already your lifetime customers, it’s easy to forget
about them and focus on other customers. But remember that these customers
types are going to bring you tons of new customers and good PR. Hence,
creating value for them and making them a part of your community will make
your lifetime customers feel special.
- Another good thing to do is educate your lifetime customers
about your referral programs and provide them with some incentives for
referring you to other people.
15.
Referring Customers
Referring
customers are the types of customers who are happy with your products or
services and are willing to refer you to new customers.
How
to deal with them?
- Referring customers types are rarely going to refer new customers
themselves. This is why you should take the first step by identifying
all the willing-to-refer customers. You can do that by asking for
feedback from your active customers. If you receive any glowing positive
feedback, ask them if they would be willing to refer your services to other
people.
- You can also provide referring customers with some incentives for
referring to some new customers to you. This will again motivate them to
refer more people to your brand.
16.
Advocate Customers
Advocates are the types of customers who are, by far, the most profitable clients of yours. Apart from being loyal or lifetime customers, they are also your brand’s loyal advocates. Belief is that multi touch point org would have more advocate customers. Like super apps etc. They talk about your company and your services at every chance they get. And they’ve already referred a bunch of customers to you. They cross buys themselves.
How
to deal with them?
- Put your advocate customers on the limelight at every chance
possible. Use them for your case studies, put up their testimonials on
your home page. This will encourage them to advocate for your brand even
more.
- Make sure that you never disappoint your advocate customers
with any bugs or customer service issues. Always be there for
them throughout their journey. And strive to lead them towards customer
success.
SUMMARY :
Every customer needs to be treated differently, here is the summary in one sheet.
