Take Care of the Customer

This is the simple one: Take care of the customer; the rest takes care of itself.

I learned that from my dad early on. It’s been the basis for my entire business strategy. Don’t work backward, focusing on money; focus on the customer.

Customers don’t want to be profited from. I’ve never heard a single customer say, “Excuse me, can you please profit from me?” They’re not opposed to our profit (generally), but it’s not what they want. Look at Apple—customers have given them so much money not because Apple swindled them, but because Apple built amazing products that customers wanted.

One convention I attended stands out in my mind. I was sitting in the booth of Manhattan Associates, the leading warehouse management software company. I was describing our need to source a new technology system at Winc Wines. He loved the story and was all in. He sat in front of me, thinking and pondering until he pensively said, “I’m wondering how I will profit from you.” Those were his exact words. I thanked him for his time and stood up. I expect companies to profit from doing business with me, but I never want to be seen as a dollar amount.

Interactions like that shaped how I sourced my partners moving forward. The team that sourced and supplied our corrugated boxes for seven years at two different companies was never concerned about profit. He made it very clear the money would follow if I was happy and consistently doing business with him.

When I would hire pool cleaners, I would explicitly say, “Your job is not to clean the pool. Your job is to make sure the customer is happy.” If that means rearranging the deck chairs or taking an extra five minutes to chat, do it. Customers are not a means to an end; they are the end. Take care of them.

The customer doesn’t walk up and say, “Excuse me, this place sucks.” They just stop coming in. They tell you about their shopping habits. Don’t make excuses—just give them what they want.

When you take care of the customer, they will take care of you.

One takeaway:

Take care of the customer; the rest takes care of itself.