How to Anticipate Customer Needs

Anticipating a customer's needs is an important part of most retail and wholesale businesses, especially in a more challenging retail environment so they choose to come back. Anticipating needs also provides opportunities for personal and professional growth. A business that takes the extra step of anticipating and providing for an obvious corollary need can generate loyal, repeat customers; and even a humble clerk who is alert to the needs of the customer standing in front of them is sure to advance.


While much of this may involve remembering or noting the desires of the individual customer, it also largely means putting yourself in a customer's place, which takes a little practice. The needs of a truck driver versus a pregnant mother with children may differ, even for the purchase of a cup of coffee. Below are some steps to help you improve your anticipation of a customer's needs.




Steps


1. Do your best to put yourself into that individual customer's place in the transaction (fulfill a need). Their needs might be unusual, recurring, or even non-existent beyond a basic purchase. Much of the anticipation of a customer's needs comes down to being aware when there might even be any, to picking up the facial cues or body language they are giving you. Ignore these at your business' peril; a simple "anything else?", asked correctly, makes all the difference.

• Have you taken time to try out or play with your products or services? What things did you discover about them that you would like to be helped with as a customer?
• Think about your own customer experience in general. How do you like to be treated and helped when getting service?
• Network with your market in a more relaxed environment by participating in events such as conferences, conventions, and informal classes. You'll learn what your future best customers are looking for, and what your casual customers would love to find out about. Bear in mind that casual participants in your market may have different priorities from the most regular and serious participants. They might be more concerned with price than features, or initially more influenced by mass advertising.

2. Be receptive of unusual needs that are normally spoken by the customer (not from your creating a need). This makes unusual needs one of the easiest needs to deal with; while you may get a vague, questioning look for recurring needs, that is less likely, but still possible here. If an unusual need becomes recurring, and your establishment is able to accommodate this customer, expect them to be your best advertisement ever.


3. Empathize, feel the need: Realize that your correct attitude toward their need is what is paramount. Being in sympathy with an unusual need, even if you couldn't fulfill it, is at least as important. On days when you aren't at your best as a service provider, get in character first, and pretend you are on stage. Fake it till you make it.


4. Be accommodating: Avoid passing your reluctance, lack of knowledge, or laid back attitude (laziness) over to the customer. Instead, find polite and reassuring ways to let the customer know how their request can be accommodated or give reasons as to why it won't be possible. If you feel defensive when a customer asks for something out of the ordinary, is this because it means more work for you, or is it because you're not sure what to do? Or maybe it's because you're stuck in your ways and dislike doing things differently? In each case, the issue is with you and not the customer.


5. Note that recognizing and meeting recurring needs of regular customers are a business' bread and butter. Your patron can, most likely, go one block over and get the same product; you remembering that they like lemon rind with their coffee, for instance, and having it for them with a smile, is what keeps them coming back. Also, being prepared to be friendly and take the time to at least ask them how they are makes all the difference between using your business over another one.


6. Take the extra moment, possibly with just eye contact, to affirm their importance to you and your business. Recognize that quite a few customers will have no additional needs beyond a basic purchase. Their body language and facial expression will tell you this; however, they still appreciate the extra second you took. Hovering waiters, take note; sometimes the best service is no service.


7. Smile: This speaks to your openness as a service person, your approachability. The phrase "the customer is always right" is a well-known rephrasing of this. Customers naturally seek out places where they won't be belittled or brushed off, even for unusual requests.

• In wholesale trade, mention that you could have a certain perk available; perhaps, a quantity discount for them as a regular customer. For example, paper companies often give printing companies who are regular customers the next price bracket so that a ream/package of paper or a box of 500 envelopes is priced at the carton price and a carton is at the skid quantity price, with free delivery on a certain day, like on Tuesdays, to their part of the city or out to a local town--and offer free delivery on a certain large quantities on other days, which may encourage the customer to stock up.

8. Expect a certain amount of idle trade due solely to customers practice of affirmation. People are going to come and spend money at your business, or on a certain clerk's shift, simply because they are made to feel better; the fact that they enjoy the experience means everything.




Tips

• People don't usually expect you to read their minds, although this can be helpful for recurring type requests.
• Establishing this continuing relationship and communication really amounts to having enough presence of mind to recognize an unstated request, often by way of body language, a lingering, a quizzical mood of the customer. Also, don't be shy to clarify if you're not sure.

Warnings

• You can't please everyone all the time, and as a service person you will have customers who seem to wish to prove this. Often a restatement of a frustrated customer's need in the correct tone of voice can clarify any misunderstanding.
• Anticipating customers' needs is an ever-evolving area that has been dealt with generally here, while in practice is often industry specific. If you're aware of excellent ways to anticipate customer needs that have been overlooked here, please edit them in.