True or False?
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The customer is always right.
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More customers means more money.
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Customers are the foundation of your business.
If you answered true to any of these, you are completely wrong. There, I said it. You are wrong.
Now before you stop reading this and send me hate mail, I can tell you that I thought they were all the absolute truth once too.
But I was wrong. Yup, I said that too.
First truth: The customer is NOT always right. If they knew everything and were always right, then they would be selling to you—not the other way around. It’s simply not their zone of genius. It’s yours as the entrepreneur.
However, when a customer does feel that they are the expert, they are not going hear anything you say. I mean anything. The best advice I have right now is to be clear about what you offer and let them move on if they need to. Both of you will have what you want if you do this.
Next truth: More customers COST YOU MORE money.
Unless you cut expenses and raise your rates, more customers often cost you more money. I learned this the hard way when my business exploded a few years back.
Not raising my rates for over 6 years created a boost in business, but also my expenses. More money was going out to supplies, software and staff to keep up. Customer service was not getting better either, just more costly and more frustrating for customers.
As a result, I raised my rates closer to industry standards and cut costs on productivity expenses to ensure that my customers (now paying more) received top notch service.
I earned more profit and provided a better product and better service. Win-win!
Last truth: YOU and YOUR TEAM are the foundation of your business. This might be one of the hardest things for entrepreneurs to accept. After all, you can't have a business without customers, right? Well, though that might be true, customers are not the foundation.
You can have an amazing product, but if you and your team are not focused on service, your product will die or, even worse, cost you more money to maintain than you make.
I’ve seen some of the best products die all because there was no customer service foundation.
Remember, though customers are not always right and more customers can cost you more money at times, to have a successful business you and your team must be the foundation that holds and grows it.
How would you answer those three questions now? Do you still disagree or do you have more thoughts about them?
Come share your thoughts about this article below and remember that we are ALL amazing entrepreneurs working to serve. Don’t be hatin’!
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