Working at Home on the Internet

Put the Customer First

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I was just sitting here trying to get some work done, and as usual the TV was being used as background noise (if I’m not listening to music). A show came on the History Channel about Jeff Bezos. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he is the one who started Amazon.com in his garage in 1994.

At the breaks they had interviews with Kate Spade and Bobbi Brown discussing their businesses, fashion and cosmetics respectively.

Although the jist of the whole show was about Internet Business, the common theme I picked up on was about Customer Service and keeping a quality brand name. (Liz Strauss has a few very good series on her blog about Branding and Customers, which I would recommend to anyone interested in building a brand.)

It seems that each company has a philosophy of keeping the Customer Satisfied. The old cliche of “The customer is always right” fits right into the way they all do business.

Some examples shown on the program:

• ~~ Jeff Bezos instills the customer first policy in all his employees. He does this with his own energy and enthusiasim continually working toward customer satisfaction.
• ~~ Kate Spade, after some under-quality products were sent to distributers, recalled the product in question. Even though the retailer said they would honor any return, Ms Spade wouldn’t allow the product to be put on shelves and risk a customer that was not happy with her product.
• ~~ Bobbi Brown has an extensive line of cosmetics which do very well for themselves, but she keeps the original product available for the people who have become attached to it. A loyal customer should not be forgotten for a new fad.

The point of the show and any good business plan has to include the Customer. Without the Customer, there Is No Business.

Where do you place customer satisfaction on your list? Does the customer’s opinion count to you?

August 30th, 2006 at 03:24pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Basics, General | reader remarks | Print This Post