Customer Preferences

Customer Preferences

Customer Preferences Jonathan Poland

Customer preferences are the specific desires, likes, dislikes, and motivations that influence a customer’s purchasing decisions. These preferences complement customer needs, which refer to the basic requirements that a customer has for a product or service. For example, a customer may need shoes, but they may also have specific preferences for a particular style, brand, or color. Understanding customer preferences is an important aspect of marketing, as it can help businesses to develop effective branding, product development, distribution, and customer experience strategies. By appealing to customers’ preferences, businesses can better meet the needs and expectations of their target audience and increase the likelihood of making successful sales. The following are common types of customer preference.

Convenience
Preferring things that are easy such as a settling for a nearby restaurant. Convenience is considered a strong type of customer motivation.

Effort
The satisfaction that results from effort. For example, a customer who gains a sense of accomplishment from a diy project.

User Interfaces
Some customers will prefer the simplest user interface possible. Others will prefer lots of buttons to play with. This can be as much about preference as need.

Communication & Information
Preferences related to communication style and information density. For example, some customers want to read detailed specifications and others want to hear a story.

Stability vs Variety
Customers who would prefer the same exact shoes they purchased a year ago in the same season versus customers who prefer an incredible variety of shoes and avoid repeat purchases.

Risk
The risk tolerance of the customer. Applies to seemingly innocuous things such as purchasing a new brand for the first time.

Values
Preferences related to values such as customers who purchase environmentally friendly products.

Sensory
Preferences related to color, look, taste, smell, touch and sound.

Time
Time preferences such as a customer who prefers an attentive waiter who drops buy every 5 minutes versus a customer who doesn’t want to feel rushed.

Customer Service
It is well known in the customer service industry that some customers prefer friendly service and others prefer diligence and professional distance. For example, a hotel porter who engages in friendly conversation versus dry information about the room and hotel.

Customer Experience
Preferences related to the end-to-end customer experience. For example, the interior design, lighting, art, music and social atmosphere at a cafe.

Learn More
Strategic Planning Techniques Jonathan Poland

Strategic Planning Techniques

Strategic planning is the process of defining an organization’s direction and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this…

Employee Benefits Jonathan Poland

Employee Benefits

Employee benefits are additional forms of compensation offered to employees as part of their overall remuneration package. These benefits can…

Alliance Marketing Jonathan Poland

Alliance Marketing

Alliance marketing refers to a strategic partnership between two or more organizations in which they agree to collaborate on marketing…

What is a Superior Good? Jonathan Poland

What is a Superior Good?

A superior good is a type of good that tends to see an increase in demand as income levels rise.…

Revenue Management Jonathan Poland

Revenue Management

Revenue management is the practice of using data analytics to optimize sales and maximize revenue for a business. This can…

Attention Economics Jonathan Poland

Attention Economics

Attention economics is a field of study that focuses on the value of human attention as a limited and highly…

Change Driver Jonathan Poland

Change Driver

A change driver is a force or factor that initiates or drives change within an organization. Change drivers can be…

Business Goals Jonathan Poland

Business Goals

Business goals are targets that an organization sets for itself in order to improve its overall strategy and performance. These…

Product 101 Jonathan Poland

Product 101

A product is an item that is offered for sale. It can be a tangible good, such as a car…

Search →

Key Bridge

People. Profit. Progress.

Business is the lifeblood of progress and you are the driving force regardless of where you fit in the value chain. People drive profit by bringing useful products and services to market. Profit drives progress by allowing the best ideas to emerge and the best investments to win.

This is the cycle of capital that moves the world forward and that’s why I started Key Bridge, a private membership for the pursuit of profit and progress; a platform for building better assets, tackling global challenges, and advancing the greater good.

Key Bridge

People. Profit. Progress.

Business is the lifeblood of progress and you are the driving force regardless of where you fit in the value chain. People drive profit by bringing useful products and services to market. Profit drives progress by allowing the best ideas to emerge and the best investments to win.

This is the cycle of capital that moves the world forward and that’s why I started Key Bridge, a private membership for the pursuit of profit and progress; a platform for building better assets, tackling global challenges, and advancing the greater good.