3 Things Your Mom Taught You About Customers

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There is a very important and early stage in our lives when we are impressionable and learn quite easily. Many of the things we learn during this stage are taught to us by our mothers and they apply to life as well as to our businesses. Here are three things that apply to our customers:

1. Do Unto Others. I don’t know about you, but I heard this one a lot. I can still hear her saying, “Would you want your friends to treat you that way?” Same goes for our customers. We should treat them the way we want to be treated as customers…fairly, honestly, candidly, helpfully. This is a pretty simple way to think about how to deal with a variety of situations involving customers…if I were the customer, how would I want to be treated?

2. Life’s Not Fair. A classic “mom” line, isn’t it? And, of course, the older we get, the more we understand the simple wisdom of the statement. Sometimes things don’t go our way with our customers. Maybe some external influence like the economy or a particularly unethical competitor gets in the way. Hey, life’s not fair. Don’t whine about it, rise above it. If it’s the economy, know that your customer is dealing with it too and help them work through their issues. If it is that competitor that promises the world and can’t even deliver a neighborhood, stay the course, help your customers and you will eventually be rewarded for it. Life’s not fair, but that’s not an excuse for failure to deliver.

3. You Have a Responsibility to the Team. OK, credit to the coach (Dad) on this one. When you were part of a sports team at my house, you learned quickly that it was not about your individual performance, it was about the team. Many of us serve our customers in team environments, whether they are teams of your people or teams involving customer personnel. Remember your responsibility to the team. You and team should always be focused on driving the customer experience and you must all be pulling in the same direction, working together, collaborating.

Would your mom be proud of the way you are serving your customers today?

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Phil Bounsall
As president at Walker, Phil is focused on the development and execution of strategies and operating plans designed to enhance Walker's position as a global leader in customer strategy consulting. Phil leads Walker's efforts in the areas of business impact consulting and mergers and acquisition services.

1 COMMENT

  1. While I heard many of these phrases emanating from my mom’s mouth, my dad was a successful small business owner. It’s he who taught me all about customer service. His highly successful, one man army, jewelry and clockmaking business thrived because of his dedication to customer service in the true sense of the topic.

    I think my father IS proud of how I’m serving my customers today and how I’m mentoring aspiring journalists and writers through my website as a pro bono service.

    Thanks for this wonderful post!

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