Do you know who your customers are?

09/07/2010

I read an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph today that set me thinking - how much do we know about our customers?

Very few of the SMEs that I have worked with analyse their customers - most of the time, we're just too happy to have some! But it really does pay to spend some time doing it. If you have 1 or 2 customers who deliver most of your income, then you are putting yourself at risk if they decide to go elsewhere. As one of the interviewees in the article put it: "It was a big deal for local suppliers," he said. "It's potential work down the drain. At the moment anything government funded is looking dodgy." Here are some questions to ask yourself about your customers:

are my customers in the public or private sector?
which sector of the economy are they in (manufacturing, service, construction etc)?
what is my relationship with them?
what is the total amount that they spent with me in my last financial year?
how good are they at paying me?
where will my new customers come from?

You will no doubt think of more, but get all the information organised in a spreadsheet and then have a good, hard look at it. Then act on it. You'll reduce your own risk if your customer base is as diverse as possible. Have a look at Business Link's set of articles on the subject.

Do you know who your customers are?

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