Then one summer, something changed. I didn't realize something had changed until Jimmy stood me up at the bus to go to the city pool for the third time. It bothered me when I realized that Jimmy just didn't show up instead of telling me that he didn't want to go to the pool.
While it hurt a little that Jimmy had found other friends, the larger problem was that I spent most of my time hanging out with Jimmy. I really didn't have that many other friends. It was a long and lonely summer.
A lot of businesses, particularly small businesses, have the same problem. They have one or a few customers who make up the bulk of their business. All (or most) of their revenue eggs are in that basket.
This creates a difficult situation for those companies, especially if they are small or medium-sized. Company A cannot afford NOT to focus on #1 Customer. They can't divert precious resources (at least very many) to finding and cultivating new customers because they need to keep #1 Customer happy because without #1 Customer, Company A will have little or no revenue and they will be done as a business. On the other hand, Company A needs other customers to make up the revenue if #1 Customer ever moves on to another supplier, for whatever reason.
When your company finds itself with most of its revenue eggs in one basket, there are two primary things you need to do:
- Take care of the basket with all of the eggs! First and foremost, keep that #1 customer happy. Make sure they don't have a reason to move on. Obviously, to this point the company has been geared to serving this customer or small collection of customers. Keep that focus on specialized customer service as strong as possible. Innovation and new services, to the extent that you are able to offer them, should be geared toward addressing the needs of your current customers. Meanwhile...
- Put a few eggs in other baskets...just in case. Whenever possible, cultivate additional customers. For small companies, this most likely will be a small move at first. But if done with regularity, you will be able to build up a more diverse client list, which will mean more relationships for the company and, more importantly, more diverse sources of revenues. The services and innovation you introduce to keep and grow your relationship with the #1 customer is bound to address the needs of other potential customers. It is important to do this because you never know when you might drop your main egg basket!
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