"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care - about them and their problems." Robert Cavett

When it comes to the consumer or customer, if you can help them get to where they want, meet or exceed their expectations by saving them time or money, you will make them happy.

A good way to find out about your customer is to do a survey or questionnaire.

Like for example you could find out their age, gender, their monthly disposable income, what are their preference in shopping, leisure or dining, how recent have they shopped, how recent have they travelled or how recent have they eaten somewhere, what do they usually buy or where have they been. It would be great to find out their likes and dislikes. The more questions you craft out, the more you would understand your customer.

Let me share with you 6 stages in the buying process, a model I extracted from Philip Kotler.

Awareness leads to Knowledge leads to Liking leads to Preference which leads to Conviction that leads to the Actual Purchase. Let's go through it one by one.

Awareness - This would be a very vital element in the process as there is no second chance for a first impression. A critical decision would be your pricing decision for if you price too cheap, you would lose out on the additional profit and if you price too high, you would scare off other potential customers who intended to purchase your product or service. It would be important to let your brand be known to the demographics or the people out there. When people constantly see a particular logo or brand, there would be familiarity and when there is familiarity, they would feel very comfortable. They would easily go to your brand. Advertising is about informing, persuading and reminding, so use the promotion to your advantage.

Knowledge - The next aspect would be providing as much details or technical specifications about the product to the customer. What could be advised is to share with them the features but relating to them as the perceived benefits. Like for example, sharing with them the discount feature but relating to them that they would save a lot of their money. Showing proficiency and knowing more about the competition would give you an edge over others. Share details but make it as less confusing as possible.

Liking or Appeal - Once the consumer is aware of the product and has got knowledge of how they could benefit from the product, the next stage would be about the things that excites them with regards to your products. The customer starts to participate in this process, being involved where he has now logically received information but would reveal some emotions of this liking.

Preference - The customer is now near the fish bait. It is a matter of which one that appeals to him. The next stage would be to personalise the product or service to the customer's choice of affordability, convenience, comfort, colour, style, design and taste, etc. It is very important to personalize your service according to the customer preference.

Conviction - At this stage, the customer has started to taste the nectar of the product and is slowly eating the fish bait until he gets hooked. The customer participates with both logic and emotion. He is convinced that he could reap the benefits from the product or service. His want for the product has just become a need.

Purchase - The last stage of this process is the purchase where the customer finds more value in the product he is purchasing verses the money he has. This stage would complete the consumer buying process. He has now formed a relationship with the service provider, building the bridge.

What we have covered is the buying process by the consumer. The challenge is not to do a one of sale to the consumer but the real challenge would be to maintain or keep the customer.