The customer is King (Queen)…but only if it suits us.
Corporations, small, large and micro are after one thing, your money!
Whether you are selling to consumers, involved in business to business dealings, selling on market stalls or an ecommerce hustler, you exist primarily to sell something in return for money.
That money pays for your expenses in trying to sell your stuff and then pays you and your employees’ wages so they can live in happiness.
Wrong!
Money doesn’t make anyone happy, it has been researched many times over, sure money helps, but it doesn’t make anyone happy as such.
Even Kings and Queens through the ages who’ve had it all, fame, power and money, but the one thing they didn’t have, guaranteed happiness.
Even making your customer King won’t make them happy either.
We often believe that in order to keep loyal customers we need to make sure they are happy and go out of our way to make sure they stay with us. Corporations go through huge expense in making sure that clients stay with them. They wine and dine them, organise events for them to attend, free tickets to sports matches and all in the hope and desire that they will stay with them for a lifetime. After all a loyal customer is a sure bet for profits.
And all those activities just make your products and services more expensive and inevitably increases the sales price to them, at which point they start looking elsewhere.
If we truly believe that the customer is King (Queen), we need to provide a fair price that sits well with the client, is competitive, honest and transparent. No frills, no extras, no entertainment, presents, gift cards, corporate hand outs, just honest and authentic business.
Practice this with outstanding customer service at every step of their journey and they will be a loyal customer for a very long time. And if the price hurts at any stage, tell them to speak with you and you will do what you can to assist them even on a temporary basis and they will do the same for you too. True partnership.
Happy selling!