Secret Strategy to Reading Your Customers’ Minds: Insider Knowledge by the World’s Greatest Marketers and Psychics (That You Can Use in Your Pharmacy)
Posted by Mat Silverstein on Mon, Feb 15, 2010
If you think you know your typical customer pretty well, take this short quiz:
- What music do your customers listen to? Country? Oldies? Riverdance?
- What where do they go on their free time? House of worship? Hunting? Picnics? Fundraisers? Sporting events?
- Where do they shop? Saks? Walmart? Whole Foods?
- What do they buy? Do they value exclusivity or lower prices? The latest electronic water bottle gadget or Great Aunt Harriet’s antique rocking chair?
- What organizations do they belong to? Rotary club? Poker club? Book of the Month club?
- Do they tune in to Fox News or CNN? Court TV or TV Land?
Figuring out the answers to these questions will not only make you a good stalker, but a highly effective marketer.
Understanding how your customers think is important, if you agree that your marketing needs to be effective and catch their attention.
- Identify your patients’ needs and wants
- Identify what you need and want in a patient
- Compare those 2 sets of needs and see if they match
If they match up, they indicate whether your current customer is your ideal customer
In a healthy business, more clients usually translate to more revenue, but the only way to attract more revenue is through more compelling marketing. Therefore, it is absolutely critical to have a concise understanding of your patients’ needs and wants.
In other words, you need to understand the psychographic variables of your customers.
You can think of psychographics as the motivations or reasons that people want to buy your product or service. Psychographics include personality, lifestyle, values, and interest.
- Do your customers stick with you because they like that you know their name? Or is it because you provide free delivery?
- Based on what criteria do your customers make the decision to go to your pharmacy?
- Because you’re the closest one around?
- Because they know you and your dog Fluffy by name?
- Because you specialize in a niche service?
- Because of awesomely fast and friendly service?
- Because you recently replaced all the florescent light bulbs with mood lighting?
- Is it really because you’ve been around the longest?
HINT: If you don’t already know why your customers come to you, it’s high time to figure that out. And the best way is not, in fact, by guessing, but by asking. As we spoke about in the previous post on pharmacy market research, surveying your customers is a great way to do this (in-person, chit chat, or official document survey). But because these are questions about your customers’ lifestyles, values, and personalities, be playful about it. Let your techs have fun one day and have them ask every person a question that will help you better know your customers.
Understand not only what decisions your customers make, but why your customers make those decisions, and you will uncover the psychographic profile of your customers. Then, you can start to think like them, walk like them and talk like them in your marketing.
Companies whose values align with those of their ideal customers are the most effective at generating brand loyalty, raving fans and long term customers. They’re also the best at finding more new customers who look identical to their existing ones.
The point: After identifying why your ideal customer does business with you, make sure to find ways to show your customers that your pharmacy values what they value, that you not only understand their needs and wants, but are committed to delivering those services with consistency, timeliness, and quality.
- Mat Silverstein