Best Customer Definition

Define ideal customers as those who get value, pay willingly, are low-maintenance, and remember their journey

Gia Laudi
Customer-led growth | Georgiana Laudi (Forget The Funnel)

Best Customer Definition

"What I mean by best customers is those that get a ton of value from your product as it exists today, pay obviously. They're happy. They're low maintenance. And very importantly, they signed up for your product recently enough that they remember what life was like before." - Gia Laudi

What It Is

Best Customer Definition is a framework for identifying which customers to study and build for. Rather than targeting all customers equally or using demographic-based personas, this approach defines "best customers" through four specific criteria that make them ideal for learning from and designing for.

The key insight is that you want to learn from customers who have successfully gotten value from your product—not all customers, not churned customers, not just paying customers. And critically, you want customers who can actually remember their journey, which means they signed up recently enough to recall what their life was like before.

This is distinct from "ideal customer profile" (ICP) frameworks that focus on demographics, company size, or industry. Those factors matter for targeting, but they don't tell you which customers will teach you the most about how to deliver value.

How It Works

Best customers meet all four criteria:

1. Get Tremendous Value

  • They're actively using your product
  • They've achieved their desired outcome
  • Your product is solving a real problem for them
  • They're the customers you want more of

2. Pay Willingly

  • They're not on free plans or heavily discounted deals
  • Price isn't a constant concern or complaint
  • They see the value exchange as fair

3. Are Low Maintenance

  • They don't require constant hand-holding
  • They don't flood support with tickets
  • They're successful without excessive help
  • They represent scalable customer success

4. Remember Their Journey (3-6 Month Recency)

  • They signed up recently enough to recall the "before" state
  • They can articulate what triggered their search
  • They remember what convinced them your product would work
  • Go beyond 6 months and you get reconstructed memories, not real ones

Why recency matters so much: If you ask a 2-year customer what they were struggling with when they signed up, they'll fill in answers with what they think might have been going on. A 3-6 month customer can actually tell you what happened.

How to Apply It

  1. Query your database for customers who:

    • Are on paid plans (or meaningfully engaged for freemium)
    • Signed up 3-6 months ago
    • Have healthy engagement/usage patterns
    • Haven't required extensive support

  2. Survey or interview this segment using JTBD questions about:

    • What was happening when they started looking
    • What triggered the search for a solution
    • What influences they consulted
    • What convinced them your product could help
    • What they can do now that they couldn't before

  3. Exclude from research:

    • Long-time customers (>6 months) — they won't remember accurately
    • Very new customers (<3 months) — they haven't reached full value yet
    • Churned customers — their experience may not represent success
    • Free-only users — they may not represent willingness to pay

  4. Use findings to inform positioning, messaging, onboarding, and feature prioritization

When to Use It

  • Before conducting customer research or JTBD interviews
  • When defining who to survey for messaging development
  • When deciding which customer feedback to prioritize
  • When building case studies or success stories
  • When identifying patterns in successful customer journeys

Common Mistakes

Too Broad: Surveying all customers waters down insights with noise from bad-fit or unhappy customers

Too Old: Customers beyond 6 months give reconstructed memories that feel true but aren't accurate

Too New: Customers in their first month haven't reached value realization yet

Demographics Over Behavior: Filtering by company size or industry instead of value and recency

Source

  • Guest: Gia Laudi (Georgiana Laudi)
  • Episode: "Customer-led growth | Georgiana Laudi (Forget The Funnel)"
  • Key Discussion: (00:22:57) - The four criteria for best customers
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Related Frameworks

Back to Discovery