Everyone is a Customer: Make it Right

One of the most powerful professional tools that I've been granted in my career is the concept that everyone - employees, colleagues, customers (readers), managers, candidates, executives and shareholders:  is a customer.

Moreover, when coupled with the concept of Customer Delight, which is a much more powerful state than just plain old Customer Service, you stack the odds of creating a business culture and philosophy that meets and / or exceeds the needs of all both internally and externally.

When taken and implemented authentically together, those two concepts are a powerful force.  You engender loyalty, retention and repeat business, which in turn engenders reputation and new business / customers.

Walking the talk of "Everyone is a Customer" and "The Customer is Always Right"  is clearly hard work.

The best and most successful professionals and organizations are in a constant state of discovery to in effect mediate the agendas of all parties and constantly create new and innovative solutions that meet or exceed the needs of all the "customers" involved in any business transaction.

Some brief but notable examples:

• Wegman's
• Panera Bread (Great place to work, meet, eat - fresh food and free wireless - great service model!)
• Repeat Business Systems and their President, Dawn
• Lisa C., who handles HMO billing at CapitalCare Medical Group.

The deal-killer and consequently the career-killer is making the customers, internally and externally, wrong.  It's the misguided value system that dictates if you make the customer / colleague / employee / employer wrong, that it will help make you right, and consequently successful.   This behavior can manifest in the following brief but notable ways:

• Berating a colleague at a team meeting;
• Being an asshole to employees as a company leader;
• Southwest Airlines;
• The irate (and ubiquitously tiresome) Jet Blue employee and the equally rude passenger / customer who smacked him with her bag because she did not follow the rules (Whether we like it or not, rules are a necessity in our post-9/11 travel paradigm.  Vendors are also customers.)

If I make you wrong and myself right (or vice versa) in any given conflict or business transaction, someone always loses.

When we work together to create a solution that meets or exceeds the needs of both you and me, the possibilities of both joint and individual success are infinite.

Let's make it right for all of our customers:  present company included.

Go forth and prosper!