Don’t Be a Prima Donna With Customers

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A common catch phrase amongst businesses is that the “Customer is Number One”. While it is good that aspiring entrepreneurs start off their projects with this ideology in mind, it’s another thing altogether to put it into actual practice.

What exactly does it mean to place the customer in the central focus of your business? Among others, here are some key points:

1. You don’t answer phone calls late and keep customers waiting.
2. You don’t show benign neglect.
3. You track customer satisfaction levels.
4. You strategize and improve points of interaction with your customers.
5. You formulate contingency plans to handle PR boo boos.
6. You inculcate a strong training program to your organization on managing customers.

Once upon a time, it was the 4Ps of marketing, being the Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Now marketers zoom in each P with the equivalent perspective from the customers’ point of view: the 4 Cs.

• Product = Customer Value
• Price = Cost
• Place = Convenience
• Promotion = Communication

Looking at each P with respect to each C ensures that the business does not view itself in an ivory tower formulating it’s ideas based on a “me” mentality. Businesses which do so more often than not sing tunes such as:

• “These complaining customers don’t own me a living.”
• “They just complain and don’t offer solutions.”

It is important to realize that they are customers. The Need Finding and Need Driving is the skill of the marketeer.

In short, walk the talk and ask yourself if you truly value your customers, or are they just a means towards your ends. Don’t be a prima donna with your customers, because a competitor with superior customer care will sweep the share away from you.

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