In designing a “Client Fulfillment System“, Michael Gerber recommends in Emyth Mastery to consistently delight all your customers. The idea is to create systems that help you collect information about your customers, and to use that to help you connect with them consistently. It means setting up email systems, tagging customers based on calculated usage, and sending automated emails to them (in the online context).
Seth Godin expressed his views about Emyth in his book Linchpin, about hiring people.
In his book “This Is Marketing”, Godin takes a more focussed less systematic approach to delighting customers (true to the difference between Godin and Gerber). He recommends connecting with those customers who reach out and connect with you. He suggests going for delighting that small group of customers who are your advocates, and to accept that the majority of customers will not provide a profit and will not be highly engaged:
It can work out. But in order to do your best work, you’ll
Chapter “Treat different people differently”, from “This Is Marketing” by Seth Godin.
need to seek out and delight the few.
So interestingly, Godin is narrowing his focus. First on a group of people you are seeking to change, and even within that group of people, who is it that will let your business run to keep serving them.