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4.4. You Can Only Have One Customer

“Regardless of whether your company is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) or consumer-to-business-to-consumer (C2B2C) or some-yet-unimagined acronym, you can only serve one master. You can only have one customer. The bulk of your focus and the whole of your branding should be for consumers or business—not both.

Understanding your customer—their demographics and psychographics, their wants and needs and pain points—is the foundation of your company. Your product, team, culture, sales, marketing, support, pricing—everything is shaped by that understanding.

For the vast majority of businesses, losing sight of the main customer you’re building for is the beginning of the end.

FadellBuild
p.201

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Your customer doesn’t differentiate between your advertising and your app and your customer support agents—all of it is your company. Your brand. All of it is one thing.

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That’s the thing to remember about B2B2C—it doesn’t matter how many businesses are involved: ultimately it’s the end consumer who carries the business model on their back.

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By making customer happiness your top priority over new customer acquisition and then incentivizing customers to share the word about your business, less of your money needs to be spent on promotion. With a company of one, which can be profitable at any size, such slow but sustainable growth makes sense. You start with the idea of creating a trust-centric business, build products that customers love, make sure they’re educated and happy with what they’ve purchased from you, and then give them systematic ways to share their success with others.

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Chapter Four: Truth Number 4: You Must Manage Your Customers

“Said differently, customers don't just consume service; they also participate in creating it. And they're not always good at their job.

Frei, MorrisUncommon Service
p.119-120

Chapter Four: Truth Number 4: You Must Manage Your Customers

“Said differently, customers don't just consume service; they also participate in creating it. And they're not always good at their job.

Frei, MorrisUncommon Service
p.119-120