Mastering Customer Types: Strategies to Effectively Engage and Retain Them

New customers

When you learn about the different types of customers and how to deal with them, new customers are extremely important. That's because these are the people that are working with you for the first time. They are the ones that studied the market, saw what you are offering, and they think that your products are going to offer them the value and results they expect.

With that in mind, new customers will require guidance. They are the ones you create an onboarding process for. That's because you want to educate them about the benefits of what you can provide, how you can provide support and assistance, but also ensure they have an excellent customer journey throughout the entire process.

Everyone is a new customer for a company at some point. However, the way you need to think about these different kinds of customers is that you want to turn new customers into return ones. And that's why you always want to keep them happy. There are some important methods you can use in order to achieve such a goal:

Make sure that you provide customers access to immediate customer support and assistance.
Encourage them to buy more from you via discounts, memberships and other benefits.
Personalize their experience and always focus on making the customer special. You need to show a reason why they need to buy from you when compared to someone else.
Answer all their queries and share onboarding emails, blog posts, tutorials and demos. New customers will always appreciate that and the great value you can provide to them.

Potential customers

Before someone becomes a new customer, they are a potential customer. These are also called leads, people that look for a product with the intention of buying it. But unlike the new customer, a potential customer hasn't made their decision first. That's why you want to make sure you highlight the benefits of your offer and how you can help the potential client fulfill their needs.

Ways to encourage potential customers to make a purchase:

Streamline the purchasing experience and make it as seamless as you can. You should always focus on keeping the user experience as great as it can be, while removing any extra steps.
Offer a clear line of communication and support, should the potential customer need it.
Provide a personalized demo that will help show off what you can do and how you differentiate yourself from competitors.
It's clear that you must remove ads and pop-ups from the website, since it deters the experience.

Referring customers

These customers are people that bought from you, and they were very happy with their purchase. In fact, they go to the point of recommending your products to other people. They feel that you provide great value for money, and they want their friends and family to check out what you offer as well. Ideally, you want to have as many referring customers as you can.

Consistency is key when you want to have these customers in a business. You want to maintain the same quality and even improve the experience, if possible. Creating a community and offering incentives for people to refer your business will help you net even more new clients. Plus, it will generate even more referring customers as well.

Need-based customers

When trying to understand the different types of customers in business, you'll notice a lot of people purchase something because they need it. They aren't the type of client that engages in a community, nor do they spend a lot of time on your website. Instead, they find the service/product that fulfills their needs, they buy it and move on. These customers need very good customer support and a streamlined customer experience.

Keeping them happy involves:

Provide a subscription system, in case the customer needs recurring assistance, it's going to help them, and you also have a consistent revenue source.
Since these people want to buy something and access it fast, a quick checkout process will be extremely helpful.

Curious customers

Curious customers can also be included in the “leads” category. The idea here is that such clients are people that already visited your site multiple times. They researched the product, know what they want, yet they still have questions. If you have curious customers, it's a good idea to offer them more information content and clear proof that you can fulfill their needs and requirements.

Also, you want to have all your policies outlined and easy to understand. That way, it becomes much easier to manage and assess everything properly. Curious customers will particularly appreciate live chat support. They are very close to converting, so it's at this point where you want to show them how much they can rely on you!

Confused customers

These customers are interested in purchasing from you, but they are the types of customers in customer service that can be nagging. That's because they don't really understand exactly what you offer, so they will require guidance. Confused customers require clear explanations, and they need to be offered fast. Chatbots are a great solution for this type of customers, because they will be easier to assist if you use such an approach. And yes, comprehensive, reliable and effective customer service can indeed lead to conversions in this case.

Angry customers

Dealing with different types of customers can be tricky, because not everyone will be happy with your services. Sometimes, there will be situations when people encounter various problems and they become angry. When you have these types of customer, the best thing you can do is opt for an empathetic approach. You want to be that person that hears them out, and which will provide a solution.

Whenever you are dealing with an angry client, you want to follow their inquiry and see if they are correct. Offering a replacement or a way to keep them happy is the best approach here. Resolutions like a discount, compensations or even a gift will always be handy, and it's certainly a thing to keep in mind. Make sure that your customer service team gets the right training, so they know how to deal with those angry customers.

Lapsed customers

When you study the different customer types in marketing, lapsed customers tend to stand out. And why is that? They are people that will end up buying from you at one point, however they might come back sometime in the future. Most of the time, though, lapsed customers don't come back because they had an issue.

What can you do here is:

Reconnect with the customer, let them know how you can help and how you can provide any further assistance.
Offer them a personalized approach and ensure their issue gets fixed. You can see this as a second chance. A lot of the time, these customers won't give you another chance, so you have to make it count.
As always, you do want to have exciting deals lined up for these lapsed customers, since that can be one of the best incentives to focus on.

Active customers

While there are different consumer types, these are the most valuable because they are actively purchasing stuff from you. But the problem is that most companies take that for granted and they think active customers will always continue to buy from them. That's not the case at all. If you stop nurturing, personalizing and enhancing their experience, those people will not come back.

Instead, what you want to do is:

Maintain a high level of consistency and show those customers that you are the best possible option to fit their needs.
Provide discounts and benefits often, to ensure you're not losing your active customers to competitors.
The customer service you provide should be quick, effective and it should always reach a great resolution.
Educate your customers with detailed video materials, and offer them access to a large FAQ section.

Discount customers

When you learn the different types of customers and how to deal with them, the discount customer is one category that stands out. The name tells it all, these people will only buy from you whenever you provide a discount/deal/sale. They are the type of person that doesn't care about products at full price. Instead, they are browsing your website, checking what you offer and they are very well educated about your products/services.

Then why aren't they purchasing at full price? A discount customer always wants to feel like they got a deal for their purchase. And that's why, in order to make them convert, you will need to provide coupon codes, sales and discounts. Going beyond your initial value and providing some added value with the purchase is the best approach. In this case, cheap, fast deliveries while maintaining a high quality product/service is how you can score such a client.

Impulse customers

Whenever you study the various types of customers, impulse customers stand out. Many companies want to have this type of clients, because they are in a rush and they do want to purchase something now. Initiating a sense of urgency is how you grab the attention of impulse customers. In fact, one of the best ways to acquire impulse customers is to have a seamless customer experience, great return/delivery/shipping policies and very good prices.

How can you keep these people happy?

Make sure that your deals are readily available, and customers can easily browse your website or use filters to access what they want.
Recommend other products from your business, since they could be interested in getting those as well.
Naturally, these are people that want to buy something fast. It means you should always ensure the purchase process doesn't have too many steps. Otherwise, you will encounter issues and that's the thing you want to focus on the most.

Loyal customers

Ideally, you always want to have this type of customers. These are loyal people that come back and purchase from you again and again. Making sure that you always fulfill their needs means they will continue to come back. And many times, these are also the persons that will become brand advocates. They will encourage friends and family to buy from you, which becomes incredibly important.

Here's how to keep loyal customers happy:

Always personalize their experience and ensure that these customers are very happy with their purchase.
Feature loyal customers in testimonials and case studies. They enjoy seeing this type of stuff, and it will only make things more exciting.
Obviously, you want to provide exceptional customer service and a proactive service for any loyal customers.
They should be the first type of customer that you want to invite in any loyalty/VIP/rewards program.
Going the extra mile and offering them first looks for new products and first access can help retain these loyal customers, too.

Every business will encounter different customer types and these are some of the most common ones. It's very important to know, as a business, how to prepare yourself when it comes to assisting every customer type. In general, you want every client to have a great experience, and if there are problems, you should address those right away. Catering to the needs of every customer type, while also educating customers/your team is extremely important as well!