Thoughts.com Blogs - Business, customer sevice and the Golden Rule

View Blog

Business, customer sevice and the Golden Rule

      Applying the Golden Rule to business and customer service, the entrepreneur should always keep in mind the wants and needs of their customer base. From formulation of the original concept throughout its development to its release and distribution to the customer and continuing even afterwards in the forms of customer support and quality improvement systems, the product should strive to be the best possible for the customer. Forcing customers to purchase only what is made available, especially if it is an inferior product, opens the doors for competition that is the frequent demise of many a company that thought they cornered the market. Offer the customer not only what it is to be sold but also include their needs, which furthers future sales, on account of customer satisfaction in both the product and the company that produces it.

     Motivation, on the part of the business, should be focused primarily on distribution and availability to customers versus profit gain from high sale prices. Fundamentalist capitalism demands a certain amount of risk assumption on the part of the producer and not for the risk to be solely placed onto the customer. If an item is produced exclusively for one sector of the possible market, then its effectiveness as a viable product is thereby bound to the financial continuation of that sector. But if this item is made available to the widest area possible of the market then profit gain through sales will increase according to the entirety of the market. If more people can buy the product then, naturally, market saturation will occur.

     Not to be overlooked, inclusive to the overall process, is the workforce. Leadership is important but not more than the people and equipment necessary for the vitality of the business, especially those at the basic levels. Basic is a synonym of essential and indispensable, not only in grammatical terms but also in the industrial world. Often the unsung heroes in business are those at the lowest and unseen stages. A CEO is the leader of a company but must always look to their workers as the source of their success not vice versa. When a leader considers their accomplishments superior to the ranks in support behind them, there will eventually manifest a degradation of morale and impetus among those that are the very foundation of that success. A battleship is an awesome force but is nothing without the crew that ensures its proper and efficient operation. The captain, though synonymous with the craft, understands that they actually could not do without their subordinates and that a crew with poor morale will function poorly.

     Keeping the customer in mind with product implementation, focusing on making that product available to a wide customer base and ensuring all levels of the production process operate in an efficient and properly motivated manner will keep any business ahead of its competitors for a very long time. The corporation that fails to understand these crucial, but seemingly forgotten, elements of capitalism lays its own head under the guillotine of inevitable failure.