Customers come in contact with businesses because they have a need that those businesses can cater to and make life easier for them. Their awareness of what a business does comes about through various means. It could be word of mouth, social media, newspaper, business listings and the likes so regardless of the size of your business, customers will always look out for five basic things as it plays a vital role in their purchase decision.

With the pandemic, it became clear that businesses must make every effort to ensure that their activities are centered on giving customers their best if they want to remain in business. In addition, customer’s expectations are on the increase and so it is important to keep these little reminders in mind as they implement their business strategies for the year.

The 5 Basic Customer Needs

1. Value for money: Job loss is on the increase because business income lines are thinning out. This has made customers become more deliberate about how they spend their money: the focus is now on getting the essential items like food, shelter, etc. To stay topmost on the minds of your customers, you have to be a value giver at every interaction. Ensure that what they are getting measures up to the amount invested. If you exceed their expectations while at it, fantastic!
2. Favourable pricing: In Nigeria, for instance, parting with cash is increasingly a hard thing to do. Customers are looking for businesses who will not only give them value for money spent but whose price is equally pocket friendly. Agreeably, the cost of running a business is on a daily increase so if you want to attract premium customers, it is imperative that you deliver top notch customer service and that your product is of high quality.
3. Swift action: Customers are increasingly impatient and they want to spend as little time as possible with their transactions. This is a consequence of having within their reach ample information to inform their buying decision and a plethora of alternatives to choose from. It’s no longer enough to just be available, you’ve got to also be swift in your transactional activities.
4. Respect: This probably ranks about 75% of the reasons why a customer would continue their patronage of a business. Remember repeat purchases is what keeps your business going. Each customer you let go is you letting money go to your competitor. Respect for customers and staff should be entrenched as one of your core values within your business.
5. Appreciation: Customers will keep flocking to businesses who appreciate them and make them feel special. Your customer shouldn’t be just another addition to the number. Appreciate them for choosing to spend their money on your business and this can be done in various ways and may not always require you spending money.

Conclusion

Regardless of the size of your business or organization, all customers tend to want the same things: your attention. When customers get to receive these basic human considerations from you, it becomes easier to align with customers needs and can even raise the bar in your service delivery. If you want premium profits, you’ve got to give premium value.