

Do you really value your customers or do you just want their money? - jslogan
http://www.jslogan.com/blog/40-blog/134-do-you-really-value-your-customers-or-do-you-just-want-their-money

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roryokane
If I had a business, of course I would only care about my customer's money. I
freely admit I wouldn't care about my customers personally at all (as long my
practices didn't oppose my morals, like mugging customers as they came in the
door or something). I don't think there is anything wrong with that, because
what makes money in the long-term is making my customers happy. I wouldn't
care about my customers, but that doesn't matter because my customers would
still be treated about the same as if I did (in an attempt to get them to buy
more from me or tell their friends about me).

Of course, telling my customers this unpleasant truth might scare them away,
so I would probably pretend to value my customers to their face.

But I'm not a businessperson. Maybe sincerely caring about your customers is
the way to success. I wouldn't know.

~~~
madair
The article seems to focus on the _claim_ of caring, versus _actually caring_.

The _success_ -implications of caring is a lot more complicated. Obviously
something inconsiderate can be very financially successful, but then the
customers invent the guillotine, cutting short a winning streak. The lassez
faire capitalists like to say that's letting _the market decide_. But I like
to think that it is the brilliant but illiterate & poverty stricken ethicists
who do the deciding at that point, although with heavy potential for a reign
of terror. And it can get pretty messy.

------
almost
You mean the companies I do business with DON'T ACTUALLY LOVE ME??? I though
it was REAL! ;)

~~~
electromagnetic
Hmm, by our ex-phone company (Bell Canada) I think they went past 'love' and
into 'stalkerism'. They've even stopped sending marked mail (with their name
on the envelope) and have started sending blank envelopes full of their crap
because we at least partially open it before it hits the trash can now.

It's literally one step away (legally speaking) from harassment, they send
like 2 unsolicited letters less per month than the police need to lay charges.
It's _that_ creepy.

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pasbesoin
It's still a social relationship. Money is a means of measuring and exchanging
obligations. But when it wholly supplants the social relationship, you're in
trouble. Money is merely a tool that facilitates a business relationship; it
does not wholly define it.

I realize this sounds vague. But think about every time someone on the other
side of a transaction went "above and beyond the call of duty". It may be in a
big way, or it may be in a small way. But for us humans, as social creatures,
it makes the difference.

This is not a call to let yourself be taken advantage of. But it is a call to
view your customer or client as more than a walking billfold.

I have some long term business connections that maintain themselves in good
part because there is also a personal connection. We're not social friends,
but we respect and look out for each other, to our mutual benefit.

Maybe my viewpoint is antiquated. On the other hand, maybe some of the recent,
"anonymous excesses" in various marketplaces is an indication that it isn't.

Not that I'm defending the crony criminalism that's also been a part of those
excesses. But I'm uncertain as to whether those people really cared about each
other, or whether they simply found each other willing and useful tools.

