Furry? Whiskers? Fluffy tail? No. Temperament.
They’re all about ‘What’s In It For Me?’
Cats, like customers, look around. They weigh things up. They bugger off. They come back again. Customers, like cats, are choosy creatures. You need to find ways to get their attention and keep it.
Invent the marketing equivalent for your business of the dangly plastic mouse, the large ball of wool and the huge scratching post. They’ll want to feel like they’re going to get a great service, as well as their favourite food.
You have to keep feeding them so they stick around.
They’ll go somewhere else if they don’t feel they are being looked after or given enough attention.
As well as showing them an attractive offering, once they have signed up, bought in or joined your group you need to keep feeding them with ideas, tips and new products to keep them feeling part of the family.
They like their ‘territory’.
They’ve got their habits and their stamping grounds, and feel a sense of ownership of them. Every customer is an individual with their own particular tastes, opinions and ways of doing things.
If you’ve targeted your marketing well, your customers will be a good fit for your business and you’ll feel like friends. But beware of imposing on their personal ideals or reinventing any products or services they already love. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
You can’t herd them.
Have you tried forcing customers to do things they don’t want to? It never works. In fact, it’s a guaranteed way to send them running. They need to be won over.
The key to this is in feeding them information. Try educating them about the problems and solutions around your service (or product) to establish the beliefs they need to have in order to buy. So they want your product (or service) before you offer it…
They’ll bring in stuff that they thought was a good idea, but is in fact a dead mouse.
You’ve heard the expression ‘the customer is always right’. It’s the biggest falsehood in commerce. But you might have to pander to customers, and if you really want to improve their lives you might have to find diplomatic ways to show them the light.
Treat them nicely, thank them, and quietly dispose of their contribution before it creates a smell.
You can’t live without them!
In the end, like cats, clients and customers are lovely as well. Most of the time, they’re pleasant to have around, provide good company as well as challenging behaviour, and in general it feels like a great partnership.
I love the purr a contented customer makes as you stroke their ego, tickle them under the profile page and serve them up a dish of prime meaty headlines with a saucer of fresh insight.
Want help with keeping your cats interested, enthusiastic and satisfied? Feel free to drop me a line via my contact page.
(I’m only joking about the cats. I mean customers, obviously.)