Customer Intelligence Profile

How to use this tool. This playbook is for owners and managers who want to know, with evidence, which customers are worth more of. Set aside about 90 minutes with your invoicing data and a coffee. At the end you will have a one-page Customer Intelligence Profile, a short list of customers to protect, and a list of decisions about where to spend your time.

Why it matters

Most small and medium businesses sell to whoever says yes. That is fine in year one. By year five it usually means a mix of excellent customers, average ones and a few who consume far more effort than they pay for, and no one has measured the difference.

A Customer Intelligence Profile replaces gut feel with a clear picture of:

• who your most profitable customers are
• why they chose you and why they stay
• what they have in common, so you can find more of them
• who is draining margin, so you can fix or reprice the relationship

The aim is not a perfect analysis. It is a profile accurate enough to change what you do on Monday.

The method: five stages

Stage 1: Gather

Pull a list of every customer you invoiced in the last 12 months from your accounting system, CRM or a spreadsheet. For each, note:

• total revenue (ex GST)
• estimated gross margin, even a rough percentage by job type
• how long they have been a customer
• industry, size and location
• how they found you
• whether they have referred anyone

Prompts:

• Can I see these numbers without guessing? If not, which gap matters most?
• Which customers would I be embarrassed to find out I could not name the main contact for?

Handle this list under the Privacy Act: keep it in your normal business systems, limit access to those who need it, and do not paste customer details into public or shared tools.

Stage 2: Rank

Revenue alone misleads. A $200,000 customer with thin margins and constant rework may be worth less than a $60,000 customer who pays on time and refers others. Score your top 15 to 20 customers below.

Customer Value Scorecard

Score each of the three qualitative columns from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Add them to the margin score to get a total out of 20.

Guide to scoring:

• Gross margin: 5 is well above your business average, 3 is average, 1 is below break-even once rework is counted.
• Ease to serve: clear briefs, reasonable scope changes, few after-hours demands.
• Payment and respect: pays within terms, communicates honestly, treats your team well.
• Growth or referral potential: likely to buy more, or to introduce others like them.

Tier A is 16 or more, Tier B is 11 to 15, Tier C is 10 or below. Adjust the cut-offs to suit your spread.

Stage 3: Compare

Now look for patterns. Take your top five and bottom five customers from the scorecard and compare them.

Pattern Finder

Prompts:

• Which two or three attributes appear in almost every Tier A customer?
• Which attributes appear in your Tier C customers but not your Tier A?
• Are your best customers coming from one source, such as referrals or a single channel? That source deserves more effort.

Stage 4: Listen

Data shows what happened. Only customers can tell you why. Aim for five short conversations with your Tier A customers over the next two weeks, and one or two with former customers if you can reach them.

Keep it informal and voluntary. These are service conversations with people you already deal with, not marketing messages. If you later send an email or SMS invitation, make sure it meets the Spam Act 2003: consent, clear identification of your business and a working unsubscribe. If you phone individuals you do not already have a relationship with, check the Do Not Call Register rules first. Do not record a call without agreement, and tell people how you will use their feedback.

Conversation script

"Hi [name], it is [your name] from [business]. I am doing some planning for the year and want to make sure we are doing the right things for customers like you. Do you have 15 minutes this week for a few questions? Everything you say stays inside our business, and there is no sales pitch."

1. "What was happening in your business when you first looked for someone like us?"
2. "Who else did you consider, and what made you choose us?"
3. "What do we do that you would be sorry to lose?"
4. "What is one thing that frustrates you, or that we could do better?"
5. "How would you describe what we do to a colleague?"
6. "What is coming up in the next 12 months where we could help more?"

"Thank you. I will come back to you on anything you have raised."

Write down their exact words, particularly answers to question 5. Those phrases belong in your marketing.

Stage 5: Decide

Combine the data and the conversations into a single page.

Your Customer Intelligence Profile

Decision checklist

• I have named the three attributes shared by my Tier A customers.
• I know the top five customers I must protect this quarter.
• I have identified at least one Tier C customer to reprice, restructure or let go.
• I have chosen one channel or source to invest more in.
• I have written down one thing customers value that I can feature in quotes and proposals.
• I have booked the customer conversations in my diary.
• I have shared the one-page profile with the people who quote, sell or deliver.

Worked example (fictional)

Westgate Mechanical Services is a made-up Perth business with 14 staff, providing maintenance and small installs for commercial buildings. The owner scored her top 18 customers and found:

• Tier A customers were mostly property managers and strata companies with multiple buildings, who paid within terms and booked planned maintenance.
• Tier C customers were one-off jobs for small tenants, often booked urgently and argued over variations.
• Four of the five best customers had come by referral from one building services consultant.
• In conversations, customers said they valued a single point of contact and clear reporting after each visit, not the lowest price.

Her decisions: focus on property managers with five or more sites, introduce a minimum call-out fee for urgent one-off work, formalise a quarterly thank-you and update with the referring consultant, and put the reporting process on the front of every proposal. These figures are illustrative only.

How to read the results

Good looks like this:

• Your Tier A group is clearly describable in a sentence a new salesperson could follow.
• Your top customers are not all dependent on one person in your team or on one contract. If any single customer is a large share of revenue, treat that as a risk and note it.
• The reasons customers give for choosing you match what you currently say in your marketing. If they do not, change the marketing, not the customer.

If your Tier A group has no clear pattern, your data may be too rough. Refine margin estimates by job type and repeat the exercise in a quarter.

Common mistakes

• Ranking by revenue only. Margin and effort change the picture considerably.
• Skipping the conversations. Data tells you what, not why.
• Asking leading questions. "You love our service, right?" gets polite agreement, not insight.
• Treating the profile as a one-off. Revisit it every six to twelve months, as customers and your offer change.
• Dropping Tier C customers without checking. Some can be repriced or scoped differently. Review contracts and notice terms first, and get professional advice if a contract is involved.
• Keeping it in your head. If your team cannot see the profile, it will not change who they pursue.

Put it to work this week

1. Export your last 12 months of customer revenue and complete the Customer Value Scorecard for your top 15 to 20 customers.
2. Fill in the Pattern Finder and write down your three most reliable Tier A attributes.
3. Book five 15-minute conversations with Tier A customers and use the script above.
4. Complete the one-page profile and share it with anyone who quotes, sells or delivers work.
5. Choose one action for a Tier C customer: reprice, change scope, set a minimum fee or manage them out.

Where Lotus helps

Lotus Strategic Services helps Australian small and medium businesses turn customer data into clear decisions. We can run the analysis with you, conduct independent customer interviews and translate the findings into a targeted growth plan. Book a free 30-minute discovery call at lotusstrategic.com.au.