The best way to find the right customers is to look closely at the ones you already serve best. Who do you love working with? Who values what you do, pays fairly, and comes back? Describe what they have in common. Then focus your time and energy on finding and serving more people like them. Growing with the right customers makes work more rewarding, more profitable, and easier to do well.
This works for a café, a music teacher, a travel agency, a financial planner, a landscaping company, a nonprofit seeking supporters, or a family business deciding where to focus.
Below you will learn how to spot your best customers, describe them, find more of them, and handle customers who are not a good fit.
Not every customer is a good fit. Some want things you do not do well. Some do not value your work. Trying to serve everyone often means serving no one especially well. When you focus on the right customers, you can tailor your service, your message, and your offerings to the people who benefit most.
Make a list of your favorite customers from the past year. What do they have in common? Consider:
Write a short description of your ideal customer. Focus on needs and values, not just age or income. For example: “Busy families who want healthy, home-style meals and value friendly service.” Or “Homeowners who care about doing repairs right the first time.” Keep it simple and real.
Ask a few of your best customers for a short conversation. Why did they choose you? What almost stopped them? Where do they look for businesses like yours? Their answers will tell you where to find more people like them and what to say to them.
Use what you learn. If your best customers found you through word of mouth, make referrals easy. If they belong to certain groups, schools, or communities, get involved in those places in genuine, helpful ways. Focus your effort where your right customers already gather.
Once you know who you serve best, shape your services, hours, communication, and experience around them. Small changes, like offering a time slot that fits their schedule or a service they keep asking for, show that you understand them.
Your right customers often know other people like them. Make it easy for them to send friends your way. Thank customers who refer others, sincerely and personally. Give them a simple way to share your contact information. Ask, at the right moment, “Do you know anyone else who might benefit from what we do?” Many happy customers are glad to help but simply never think of it. A gentle, well-timed ask can bring in exactly the kind of customers you want most, because people tend to refer others who are like them.
It is okay to gently refer some people elsewhere. If a customer needs something you do not do well, sending them to someone better serves them. Over time, you may find that focusing on the right customers reduces stress, conflict, and wasted time.
Choosing the right customers is not about rejecting people. It is about serving the people you can help most, as well as you possibly can. Service before Self means being honest about where you shine and pointing others to better options when that serves them best.
Look at your best current customers, find what they have in common in needs and values, and talk to them about why they chose you.
Yes, when you kindly refer them to someone who can serve them better. That is good service.
Ask your best customers how they found you and where they look for businesses like yours, then focus your effort there.
Written By
Darlene Gagnon is the founder of WeKinnect Global Branding Agency. Guided by the core value of Service before Self, she works with entrepreneurs and family-owned legacy businesses. She focuses especially on restaurants, arts, and travel and tourism. Darlene writes on Branding, Positioning, Marketing Strategy, Public Relations, Storytelling, and Entrepreneurship. WeKinnect serves entrepreneurs and family-owned legacy businesses across restaurants, arts, travel and tourism, banking, home services, nonprofits, and the pet industry, and Darlene brings that same spirit of service to every piece she writes.
