MBNews has been published as a benefit of MBNA membership for over 80 years. All of that history means we have a great archive of articles.
The original article in MBNews acknowledges that it was reprinted from the July, 1964, issue of The Sample Case, official publication of The United Commercial Travelers of America, with their permission. Copyright, 1964. Thank you to Editorial Board Member Heather Sturgill for researching and selecting the “Blast from the Past” articles.
What Is A Customer?
by E. M. Hargreaves
“What Is A Customer?” the leaflet was headed. Reading it, I thought back to the days when I seemed to encounter it everywhere. It was printed on big cards, and many of my friends had it hanging in their shops and offices and factories. I saw it so often that I imagined (and still do) that everyone must know it by heart. Then it seemed to disappear.
Now, suddenly, it is here again, cropping up in an age that considers itself go-ahead, that often behaves as though it is “fuddy-duddy” to bother too much about people. Yet this age is full of moans and groans and fears, of complaints about bad business, unfair trading and cut-throat competition and the rest of it.
What is a customer? The definition is explicit.
- “A customer is the most important person ever to approach this company-in person, by mail or by telephone.”
- “A customer is not an interruption of our work-he is the purpose of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.”
- “A customer is not an outsider to our business-he is a part of it.”
- “A customer is not a cold statistic-he is a flesh and blood human being, with feelings and emotions like our own, and with biases and prejudices.”
- “A customer is not someone to argue with or match our wits against. Nobody ever won an argument with a customer.”
- “A customer is a person who brings us his wants. It is our job to handle them profitably to him and to ourselves.”
We all know it to be true. We’re all sure we recognize the importance of the customer. But do we fully and absolutely? Or do we, in practice, hedge our knowledge round with qualifications of one kind and another? Are we guilty, even though faintly, of considering customers lucky to be able to buy from us?
What is a customer? Different people have different ideas of the order of importance of the definitions. Many would top the list with one that is omitted from these items-a customer is the source of our income. Every penny of turnover in every factory and shop and office comes from him. He pays the wages and provides the profit.
There seems, today, to be a total lack of understanding of the truth of this definition. In far too many walks of life far too many people seem totally unaware of the fact that the money must come from somewhere before wages can be paid.
It is almost as though a tradition is growing up that industry and commerce exist solely to provide wages- yes, and profits too-and that the customer is under some sort of duty to spend his money, irrespective of the service or the value he receives for it.
In the retail scheme of things, the attitude is particularly prevalent in the big stores. How often have you, yourself, go into one of them one that is familiar and whose name is a household word and been appalled (and even disgusted) by the casual attitude, even the resentment displayed by someone behind the counter?
And how often have you been on the verge of complaining-but refrained from doing so because you knew the only result would be a lot of excuses about the difficulty of obtaining suitable staff?
It is true, of course, that the staff situation is difficult. Time after time, in my local paper, I have read advertisements for shop assistants: “Over 40 preferred,” and “Nobody under 40 need apply.” A sufficient commentary, perhaps, on our times.
Yet, what are the times? Is a way of living (which is what we mean by the times) something that just happens? Is this casual approach, this lack of humanity, of human courtesy, a being and a power in its own right, an ogre walking the earth, penetrating into factories and shops and hypnotizing the occupants into icy disregard of friendship and love and all the other qualities that distinguish men from animals? Is it something real, something possessed of the power to transfer decent people, like you and me and all our neighbors, into Frankensteins?
It would appear so in industry, where unions and employers are constantly poised against each other-arguing over what should be given and what cannot be afforded, and often striking or locking-out over things they recognize to be trivialities- or would recognize if they all didn’t have to be so “right” all the time.
And this, too, happens with a fine disregard of the ultimate destination of the goods that could be made in greater quantity and better quality if so much energy were not being wasted. That destination is the customer, usually waiting with money in his hand to buy something that will give him pleasure.
There are so many aspects of the service, the true and willing service, that lies behind the concept of the customer as “the purpose of our work.” Perhaps the best way of seeing a whole picture is to think of ourselves in the role of a customer buying groceries and meat and newspapers and suits and dresses and railway tickets and seats at the theater. What treatment do we expect? What annoys us both vaguely and even to the point where we swear never to enter a certain shop again? What is it that attracts us back to a shop? In serving our customers as we would like to be served, in recognizing that they are men and women like us with cares, fears, preoccupations and dreams that often make them awkward and difficult to please and unresponsive, and insisting on giving them the highest service we can in spite of it all, we find the way to power.
We come to exercise dominion over the conditions of our own lives-over the temptation to be a little sharp in our practices, to use inferior ingredients when trade drops off a little, to run down the fellow who’s indulging in unfair competition, to worry over the state of trade. This doesn’t mean that we must supinely accept that “the customer is always right.” He isn’t, and we all know it.
We know in our own lives occasions when we have merited censure-and recognized the justice of it. So, at times, we have to ask ourselves: “Would I, as a customer, treat a salesman like this? Would I make this complaint?” If we admit that we would, then the customer is right. But if, quite honestly, we can say that we wouldn’t, then we can safely reject the complaint and insist on our own rights.
Above all, however, we need to realize that the customer is the “purpose of our work.” It isn’t just a question of money-though that is important. What really matters, what in the end insures there is money to be important, is the realization that we recognize our customers as people-that they all have their inner needs, spiritual needs, even in their shopping, and that the fulfillment of these needs is as important as the satisfaction of their material requirements.
Ten Telephone Tips
- Answer all your telephone calls promptly.
- When answering the telephone identify yourself, your firm, or your department.
- Speak directly, yet distinctly, into the telephone in a warm friendly tone of voice.
- Be courteous in all your telephone contacts.
- Transfer calls only when necessary and then be sure it’s to the proper person.
- Keep a pencil, pad and all necessary records convenient to the telephone.
- If you must leave the telephone during a conversation, suggest a call back if you can’t return immediately.
- When placing a call, stay on the line and be ready to talk when the called party answers.
- When away from your telephone leave word where you are going and approximate time of return.
- Say “Goodbye” pleasantly and replace the receiver gently.