{"id":2530,"date":"2011-02-12T02:48:30","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T02:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=2530"},"modified":"2011-02-12T02:48:30","modified_gmt":"2011-02-12T02:48:30","slug":"how-do-you-define-%e2%80%98best-customer%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/how-do-you-define-%e2%80%98best-customer%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"How do *You* define \u2018Best Customer\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Seth Godin has it exactly right when he asks in a recent blog post<\/a>,<\/em> “\u2026what if you define \u2018best customer\u2019 as the person who brings you new customers through frequent referrals, and who sticks with you through thick and thin?”<\/p>\n

In other words, what if we define \u201cbest customer\u201d as \u201cstrongest Brand Advocate\u201d?\u00a0 How would that change the way we think about and treat our Brand Advocates?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We might:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 pay even more attention to them: watch, listen, learn<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 get to know their preferences so we can continue to delight them<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 go \u201cabove and beyond\u201d in our interactions with them<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 solicit their honest feedback at key brand or product development decision points<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 go out of our way to make sure they know we appreciate them (their insights, time, energy, loyalty)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 be so aware of their value that we start bragging to our colleagues about the power of OUR Brand Advocates (be careful, though, they are<\/em> people, not commodities!)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 invite them to visit with us online, and welcome their friends as warmly as we welcome our Advocates<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 think more often in terms of ways we can serve<\/strong> them better instead of how they can serve us<\/p>\n

Notice that all of these behaviors have the beneficial side-effect of improving our brand\u2019s relationship with our Advocates, which gives them reason to be even more loyal and even stronger Advocates for our brand.<\/p>\n

The main paradigm shift required is the willingness to first focus on the relationship value of a \u201cstrongest Brand Advocate\u201d<\/strong> and wait to make a monetary value assessment until we see the slightly longer-term \u201cincome\u201d resulting from numerous referrals, repeat business, and overall brand impact as positive word spreads through your Brand Advocates\u2019 social networks.<\/p>\n

In a culture of instant gratification, it\u2019s tempting to keep thinking of our \u201cbest customer\u201d as the one who provides the most money the quickest, but we need to start seeing the lifetime marketing value<\/a> as <\/em>the holy grail.\u00a0 And our Brand Advocates are the ones to bring us that treasure.<\/p>\n

Ted Rubin<\/p>\n

Ted Rubin<\/a> Ted has a deep online background beginning in 1997 with Seth Godin, as CMO of e.l.f. Cosmetics, & recently as Chief Social Marketing Officer, Open Sky.<\/p>\n

Originally posted at <\/em>ZuberRa<\/em>nts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seth Godin has it exactly right when he asks in a recent blog post, “\u2026what if you define \u2018best customer\u2019 as the person who brings you new customers through frequent referrals, and who sticks with you through thick and thin?” In other words, what if we define \u201cbest customer\u201d as \u201cstrongest Brand Advocate\u201d?\u00a0 How would … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[928,276,32,147,30,1029,897,3],"class_list":["post-2530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-brand-advocate","tag-brand-loyalty","tag-marketing","tag-seth-godin","tag-social-media","tag-social-media-marketing","tag-social-media-strategy","tag-ted-rubin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2537,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions\/2537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}