You can’t please every customer. Trying to will spread your business too thin.
Everyone thinks and experiences things differently.
Focus on what most of your customers want. Give them the products and services that fit those wants.
This idea has a name: the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule. In many small businesses, about 80% of revenue comes from around 20% of customers.
Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons makes a related point. Businesses that try to serve every kind of customer lose focus. Businesses that pick one clear primary customer usually end up stronger than businesses that try to serve everyone.
Here’s Amy’s Story About Focused Products and Services
Amy has a jewelry store. She has been in business for a few years and has a lot of experience.
One of her policies is to get feedback from her customers. That’s a good way to learn what customers want, but the feedback has to be used wisely.
Amy’s problem was that she took every comment too seriously. She tried to keep everyone happy and kept changing her business practices and product line.
The constant change wore her out. It created extra work and extra cost with each shift, and it made her business unstable.
Customer feedback is essential to running a business. How you interpret it is what matters.
Find out what your customers want, then build your products and services around that.
Do less. Do it better. Your business will run better for it.
You’ll grow your profits. You’ll stay more focused on what needs to be done, and you’ll feel more at ease.
Don’t chase quantity. Chase quality.
Try And Please Everyone, and You’ll Please No One
If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one. Combine your strengths with what most of your customers want, and you’ll build a stronger business.
Take Amy’s jewelry shop. She knows diamonds well, and 60% of her customers buy diamonds at her shop. She also carries gold rings, gold bracelets, silver, and other jewelry.
This is an example of customer segmentation — grouping customers by what they actually buy, then building your business around your strongest group. If Amy focused on diamonds instead of spreading herself across every jewelry category, she would likely do much better.
She could survey her customers to learn which types of diamonds and related services they want most.
By adjusting her focus, she could become one of the leading diamond retailers in her area.
What part of your business should you focus on? What are your strengths?
Focus on those areas. Look at the areas where you’re weaker and where customers show little interest.
Cut those areas back, and you’ll prosper. You’ll move up in branding, customer service, and quality.
Key Points and Facts About Focusing on the Customers You Can Please
Why You Can’t Please Everyone
- Everyone thinks and experiences things differently, so a single approach won’t satisfy every customer.
The 80/20 Rule
- In many small businesses, about 80% of revenue comes from around 20% of customers.
Customer Segmentation
- Grouping customers by what they actually buy helps you build your business around your strongest group.
The Cost of Constant Change
- Reacting to every piece of feedback can create extra work, extra cost, and an unstable business.
Action Steps for Focusing on the Customers You Can Please
Accept You Can’t Please Everyone
- Remember that you can’t please everyone, so focus on the customers you can serve well.
Find Out What Customers Want
- Ask for feedback, but weigh it carefully rather than acting on every comment.
Build On Your Strengths
- Identify the products or services tied to your strongest customer group, and invest there.
Checklist for Focusing on the Customers You Can Please
- Review Customer Feedback
- Collect feedback regularly.
- Look for patterns instead of reacting to single comments.
- Identify Your Strongest Customer Group
- Find which customers or products drive most of your revenue.
- Look at your numbers through the 80/20 lens.
- Narrow Your Focus
- Choose the products and services that fit your strongest group.
- Scale back offerings that draw little interest.
- Measure the Results
- Track profit, workload, and customer satisfaction after narrowing focus.
FAQ: Focusing on the Customers You Can Please
Is it bad business to turn away some customers?
- No. Choosing not to chase every customer type lets you serve your best customers better, which usually strengthens the business overall.
How do I know which customers to focus on?
- Look at where most of your revenue comes from, and ask customers directly what they want through feedback or surveys.
What if narrowing my focus loses me some customers?
- Some loss is normal. The goal is to trade a small number of low-value customers for stronger service to your best ones.
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