Fundamental of the Week #7: Always Serve the Customer

Remember our founding principle “we work in partnership,” always! In all situations do what’s best for the customer, even if it’s to our own detriment.

Almost any business will claim the “importance of their customers,” but what’s more important is what keeps your customer? Assuming your product meets their needs and price range, then your customer’s experience of what it’s like to do business with you is tantamount. Every customer, consciously or not, quickly sorts you into one of two categories: your business focus is serving your interests or their interests. I believe that organizations that consider themselves to be there to serve people have a much higher survival rate than those that don’t. Service to others is a lifetime discipline and is empowering. Caring for your customers smooths out problems, creates room to handle breakdowns, and gives a positive voice to how your customers talk about you. I recently read studies that offered evidence that how customers think about you was enhanced from a complaint, upset, or breakdown when it was handled quickly and with care to the impact on the customer, even though it was a breakdown!Over the years I find that shortly after walking into a store or company, I quickly get a sense of the attitude and the mood of the organization, and it shapes my interest in doing business with them.Your relationship to your customers concerns and needs creates an atmosphere around you, your people and your business. By the way, how you treat your people strongly impacts the customers experience, but that’s for next weeks’ fundamental.So, when someone walks into your place of business, do they experience you serving their interests? Your future depends on that call.Craig ClarkFounder and CEO,Momentum Consulting, Inc