Today's customers are a lot different than those in the past decades. Every customer expects a personalized experience from brands. As per a 2022 survey, the majority of customers are likely to stop using brands that cannot personalize their customer experience. So, how do you ensure you don’t become one of those brands?
To support all types of customers, you need to classify them based on their behavioral patterns and handle them with the right strategies. So, the first step for optimizing customer experience is to understand the types of customers. That's exactly what we will cover in this guide.
Here, we will discuss all the common types of customers and the best way to satisfy each of them!
- 8 Types of Customers and How to Satisfy Them
- Effective Customer Service - The Key to Satisfy All Types of Customers
- Wrapping Up – Know the Types of Customers to Uplift Your Business
8 Types of Customers and How to Satisfy Them
Every customer has a different mindset and needs. New customers who are in their awareness stage need to be treated differently than regular customers who trust your brand.
Types of customers are classified based on how they think, behave, and respond. Let’s have a closer look at each of them.
1. Lookers
Lookers generate the most traffic on your website but the least number of sales. They are the ones who do not intend to purchase any of your offerings. They visit your website or store just to conduct competitive research or are just interested in your products without being driven by a need. They will get back to you later if they find your offerings useful. You need to leave a good impression and convince them that you have the right solution.
- Make your website easy to navigate with an attractive landing page and aesthetic design.
- Integrate a live chatbot like VOC AI Chatbot to send out proactive messages to offer help and answer queries.
- Consider remarketing by sending emails and social media ads that tempt them to go back to where they left off.
Overall, don't push lookers for sales. Instead, make your offerings as attractive as possible. They will surely consider making a purchase.
2. Discount Seekers
Discount seekers are never interested in regular pricing. They are on the hunt for discounted offers and the best deals. 66% of millennials and 67% of Genz are willing to wait for discounts before making any purchase online.
The best example of such customers is the ones who can make their dinner wait a couple of hours just to avail midnight deals at a restaurant. They are analytical researchers looking for the cheapest solutions in the form of the best deals.
How to approach the discount-seekers?
- Highlight the discounts and deals site-wide so it's easy for them to spot.
- Let them know of your discounts and the best deals at the right time with the right campaigns. Explain the real value of your products so they can make the most out of them.
- Reward them via loyalty programs to ensure a long-term relationship.
Just make sure that your discounts are impossible to miss for these customers. Overall, discount seekers might not be actively seeking a product but would get one if they find it at a reduced rate.
3. Impulse Customers
Impulse customers are known to make instant purchases without thinking or researching too much about them. They make their decisions based on emotions. So, if they see it, like it, or want it, they will get it.
Impulse customers are the easiest to upsell and cross-sell, as they are not looking for any specific product but whatever catches their sight. That's the reason impulse customers generate the most sales. In fact, customers are more likely to buy on impulse when shopping online, so they are the easiest to target through the website.
How to sell to impulse customers?
- Keep your purchasing process as smooth as possible. They should be able to easily browse through the products and check out quickly before that buying impulse ends.
- Create a sense of urgency in your offers. Keep your stock limited or make time-bound discounts.
- Keep them in a loop by informing them about new products, sending reminders, and keeping them engaged.
Overall, you have to be strategic and aggressive to grab the impulse phase of such customers and make them place the order.
4. Need-based Customers
Need-based customers are already clear about what they want to buy. They are driven by their need, and that's the only thing they would buy and leave.
For such customers, it is extremely difficult to upsell as they are least interested in anything other than their required product. They are looking for the best value-enriched product. They are not your loyal customers and can easily move on to a different brand if they do not find their type of product.
How to acquire and retain need-based customers?
- Convince them that your products are the best ones in the competition, both in terms of features and pricing.
- Train your customer support team to provide the best customer service. You can integrate a chatbot, like VOC AI Chatbot, into your website to ensure that need-based customers get responsive service and leave satisfied.
- Try building a personalized connection to bridge the communication gap for a stronger relationship with need-based customers.
- Remove obstacles and provide a streamlined checkout process with easy navigation.
Need-based customers are easy to grab if your product dominates for its features and pricing. Overall, try to leave a good impression before and after the sale so that they come to your store every time they need that product again.
5. Curious Customers
Curious customers are the ones who need a lot of assistance in general before making a purchase. They may have questions about product features, shipment, cost, etc. So, they may come to your website but don't end up buying anything because of their unanswered questions.
They are generally curious about how to make the best out of your products. For such customers, your support team needs to be extremely active to resolve all their queries.
How to assist curious customers?
- Integrating a real-time AI chatbot into your website would do wonders by answering all their questions 24/7. For instance, the VOC AI Chatbot, an alternative to Intercom, can train on your provided knowledge base and then provide real-time and convincing support to customers.
- Make sure your website contains detailed guides and useful information about the usage of products, delivery options, refund policies, and warranties.
- Help them with decision-making by holding one-to-one meetings, product demos, etc.
Overall, curious customers only want adequate customer support to discuss all their concerns and learn how to make the most out of their purchase.
6. New Customers
New customers are the ones who have bought your product or signed up for your services for the first time and are looking to see if it works for them. Here, you get the perfect opportunity to leave a good impression and retain them.
They must have liked your products or services; that's why they made a purchase, but now it's your job to give them an excellent post-purchase experience so that they stick with you.
How to turn new customers into loyal customers?
- Appreciate them and send out thank you messages.
- Send them a freebie if possible.
- This way, you build a healthy connection with them.
- Make sure your customer service agents are all ears for their queries. New customers must never leave disappointed by poor customer service.
- Ask them about their usage experience after some time.
- Offer some special discount to convince them to make the next purchase.
Overall, new customers only need a smooth customer journey and quick assistance to solve their problems easily. If they like your services, they will soon become loyal customers.
7. Loyal Customers
Loyal customers are the most important segment of your customer base. They are the ones from where most of your revenue is generated, as they are likely to repeat orders and recommend your products to others as well. Gaining the trust of customers is difficult, but once they become loyal, try not to lose them.
To retain your loyal customers, you must maintain the quality of products and services and initiate loyalty programs to show how much you care about them.
How to serve and retain loyal customers?
- Maintain and improve the quality of products and services.
- Initiate loyalty programs to show how much you care about them.
- Release new features and products/services in a regular manner.
- Ask about their feedback.
- Reward them with points, cashback, exclusive discounts, and coupons to give them a reason to shop again or make a referral.
- Send them personalized messages and emails on various occasions and special dates, like their birthday and customer anniversaries.
In short, loyal customers are already in love with your products and services. So, you might not need to put in the effort to make them happy, but you surely need to maximize customer satisfaction to keep them happy.
8. Dissatisfied Customers
Dissatisfied customers are the ones who have had a bad experience with your customer service or your products/services. It is a fact that you cannot satisfy everyone with everything, but how you deal with them is what counts.
Most customers are dissatisfied with expensive shipping options, lack of return/exchange policies, and poor customer service. So, you should make sure your customers don't have to face such issues.
How to approach dissatisfied customers?
- Send them an apology letter/email to try to rebuild the trust.
- Take their feedback and suggestions into consideration.
- The customer service team should be prepared for negative reviews and trained to handle them wisely.
- Offer an exclusive discount or a gift, if possible. If they are dissatisfied with the product, offer them a new one free of cost after fixing the issue.
Dissatisfied customers can leave negative reviews and affect the brand's reputation. Therefore, you must give them utmost attention so they get their problem solved without having to leave a poor rating.
Effective Customer Service - The Key to Satisfy All Types of Customers
Looking at all the above types of customers, one common practice to engage with them is seamless customer service. A responsive and satisfactory customer service can deal proficiently with almost all types of customers.
Other than training customer service agents, today's world demands deploying AI chatbots. An AI chatbot is like a virtual service agent but is available 24/7 and provides authentic answers to all queries. One of the best AI chatbots to use is the VOC AI Chatbot.
VOC AI Chatbot offers an intuitive visual chatbot builder through which you can build and train the chatbot with your knowledge base. Afterward, you can integrate it on your website, Gmail, WhatsApp, or other platforms.
Once done, it can respond to all types of customer queries and keep track of conversations with analytics. This way, you can elevate your customer service experience and deal with different types of customers more efficiently.
Wrapping Up – Know the Types of Customers to Uplift Your Business
Knowing the types of customers is extremely important for optimizing the customer experience and crafting your business goals for the future. Once you identify customers by their types, you can provide them with the exact service experience they need. Therefore, we will wrap up by recommending you categorize your customers by types and then proceed strategically with your sales and marketing.
