Understanding Your Clients

Comparing the job of a customer service representative with an actor on a stage is not a perfect analogy. For example, although actors do interact with their audience in a collective sense, it is usually not reasonable, or even possible, for an actor to isolate one audience member and respond only to that person. And yet, that is exactly what you must do most of the time when you are dealing with customers. On the other hand, like the actor, as a customer service expert you must respect and react to the characteristics of your audience, making note of their general demeanor and remaining ever vigilant for the feedback they provide that will guide your own actions.

John Russell, President of Harley Davidson, said: “The more you engage with customers, the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.”

Know your customers better because only they can help you get more lead and more business. Understanding customers is the key to giving them good service which in turn results into strong customer relationships and new sales through positive word-of-mouth recommendation. However, understanding the customers’ psyche is not easy and most often requires a thoughtful analysis to identify their preferences or purchase patterns so that you can anticipate their needs and exceed their expectations.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.

Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

1. Describe the three types of audience analysis;
2. Apply audience analysis to communicate effectively with customers;
3. Differentiate among significant consumer segments; and
4. Illustrate how cultural diversity affects the development of customer service strategies.

Course Curriculum