In a previous article we reflected on the nature of the company and indicated that, according to Peter Drucker, this is a entity that is dedicated to creating clients; With this definition we indicated that the task of the company to dedicate itself to obtaining or converting consumers into clients could be definitively understood.
On this occasion I want to stop and reflect on the client, since if the nature of a company depends on its definition, it is important that we focus on this analysis.
A customer is not the same as a buyer or a consumer
- The consumer is someone who uses a product or service and might not have paid for it. For example, one may be a consumer of a television program or a social network that is paid for by another person or the company in which they work.
- The buyer It is someone who decides to purchase a product or service but, however, after this they could decide not to continue consuming or using it, since they do not consider it good. From that point of view, you are a buyer, but you have decided not to become a customer.
From this analysis, the client is someone who consumes a product, buys it or is responsible for its acquisition and decides to continue consuming or purchasing it; That is, you want to start a relationship with the company in the medium or long term.
But this reflection is not absolutely original; However, what was different was Peter Drucker's point about the relationship established between the company and the customer. The business guru said that The client is someone who can always say “No.” and that the client is someone who is always outside the company.
By indicating this, Peter Drucker directs us to reflect that the client cannot be captiveOr, it is not someone that we will necessarily always have and we cannot take it for granted that we will keep it and that, on the contrary, we must constantly seek to make them fall in love with our products and services.
By always having the freedom to say no at any time, the client exercises that freedom every day and, therefore, the permanent duty of companies is to seek to conquer it. It's as if we were forced to permanently fall in love with our partner every day (that's how it should be).
Importance of knowing the client
From this point of view, it seems a contradiction for a company to seek create clients and that they can always choose to say no and leave. However, it is not a contradiction; It is rather the reflection on the freedom of people in a free market that should lead companies to draw up strategies to permanently “fall in love” with your clients.
When an organization is clear that the customer is someone who can go to the competition, who may decide to purchase or try other products, who is exposed to the offers of our business adversaries, is when he decides to have a permanent strategy to make his client fall in love and retain him.
It is only in this sense that we find that the free nature of the client It directly affects business work and turns it, as we have said, into a daily challenge that consists of thinking, designing, creating processes, products and services that are always focused on the client and that are attentive to the fact that other companies can offer better. services or products that we.
It is only in this spirit that we can understand that the “unfaithful” nature of the client is what it must take us to do permanently. policies to seek to retain him in his freedom.
