Breeding Your Super Customers
Envision a legion of customers. Ones that are genetically engineered to be stronger, more agile and more intelligent than any other customer you had before. Customers that heed your ever beck and call, and frequently parade your business about like it is the greatest thing in the world, because they’re engineered to do so.
Now stop, because that’s terrifying. Super customers aren’t (and shouldn’t be) mindless drones that respond to your every beck and call. Instead, they are rational, realistic human beings that, like all of your other customers, make purchasing decisions on their own accord and based on their own necessities. But they are a little different too.
Super customers can be your brand advocates. The people that tell and influence others into visiting your restaurant. The people that come in smiling and cheery and in groups of six because they love your business. “The foix gras here is to die for,” they say. 
And, in some cases, they can bring about the humanity in your business. They can show that, despite the facade that shrouds your business that suggests that it’s all “just business”, there’s a lot more to you than that as well — that there’s actually a real person somewhere in there.
Still, therein lies the question: What does it take for my business to turn my regular, boring customers into these ‘super customers’?
Ensure That Responses Are Prompt And Courteous
Whether your customer has a problem, is offering feedback on how to improve something about your business or is simply commending you on the consistent and brilliant job that you have been doing lately, it is important that you respect their comments. And in instances in which they present a problem, it’s important for you to respond courteously and quickly. Taking a long time to deal with a customer’s problem will not only be damaging to your business’s reputation, but it may also result in the loss of a few customers. And, depending on what industry you are in, that can seriously impact your business’s bottom line.
Talk To Them
Social media is great. Social media allows businesses to keep in constant contact with their closest customers with daily updates and conversations. That’s awesome. But it has also presented a problem in that social media channels are never closed. They are always open for conversation, and thus, should almost always be monitored.
Still, most businesses don’t keep as close of an eye on their social media presences as they should. Once their doors close on Friday (depending on the business of course), they feel that continuing that conversation with their fans and followers isn’t exactly a necessity.
But it is important to maintain that presence 24/7 because it shows transparency and it gives your customers the impression that you do actually give a crap about them because, well, they are the ones that are supporting your company.
And beyond social media, it’s important to maintain that conversation in person. Be friendly. Be open. And if you do, you might meet someone interesting. Who knows, maybe that person might become one of your super customers.
Show Them That You Care
That probably sounds cliche. Strange, even. Almost immediately I began envisioning an overly friendly business owner with sweaty palms and weird knuckle hairs aggressively engaging in conversation with his customers.
But making customers feel warm and welcome is important because it makes them feel wanted, and it encourages them to maintain their relationship with you as a business. Think about it, what separates Walmart from the smaller, more inviting confines of a local grocery store? In Walmart, customers are far more alienated from the business. There is no intimacy in their experience.
And further, it’s important to show your customers that their loyal support is important. Giving them a complimentary item or service every once in a while will not only show that you recognize them for what they have contributed to your business, but that you appreciate that loyalty heading forward.
But creating super customers is truthfully much easier than it sounds. Mostly, it’s just about cultivating the relationships that you have probably already created, and then some. By cultivating those relationships you not only separate yourself from every other business that is trying to simply ‘sell’ something, but you increase the probability that some of your current customers may become those super customers.