Customers Aren't Always "Right"

Now I realize that most people in business have heard or have been trained on the concept that "the customer is always right" but it's a trap for your business and not a long-range strategy or operating basis that you should subscribe to. 

The truth is, it was you that came up with your business idea. You have created it everyday and worked out the kinks - not your customer. Customers don't always know what they need or want until you acutally present it to them. While it is very important to listen to the customer to understand their needs or problems - it doesn't mean it's a good idea to take every suggestion or to listen to their ideas for how to operate your company. 

Your job is to solve their problem. Stick to what you do and stick to your ideas for how to accomplish that. Become intimately familiar with the customers problems and then work out the solutions based on your own insights and knowledge to attain what is needed. If you operate on the premise that the customer is always right, I can almost guarantee that this will lead you off your course down a dark path that you shouldn't be. You've built an entire company based on what you have come up with, your ideas, your methods and the customer signed up because of it. Deal with any suggestions or complaints as they come up, sure. But don't deviate off course based on listening to everything the customer say's until one day.... your progress slows or declines because you've been changing your company based on "the customer is always right". 

Know your company. Know your clients problems and then know the methods to solve them and stick to it. Continue to improve your company to solve the problem better but don't get distracted by customer input, ideas or complaints. If you solve the problem and get good at doing what you do and you consistently impropve what you do based on what you know, you won't need to worry about the customers input because they will be extremely pleased with what you have done. 

Here's a great quote from Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, that relates to this:

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

So focus your efforts. Improve your systems and delivery for what you do but ultimately you have to know your company goals, purposes and who you are as well as what you are trying to be. That will carve your company into the ideal vision you are trying to attain. The customer doesn't know what the vision is or how to get there and they never will so just focus on doing what you do and servicing them better to handle their problem, need or want and everyone will be happy. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Fast Decisions Make Time

It's pretty common to hear people complain about not having enough time or being busy. There never seems to be enough time right? Too much work and not enough time to do it. However, a huge sum of the problem is not related to how much time there is, it's related to what people do to themselves that cause bottle necks in their schedules and gobble up their time.

I could list out many many examples of this but for the purpose of keeping this short and sweet, I will name just one. Decisions. Taking forever to make them, that is. Here's an example: your company needs a product or service that has been discussed in the past and everyone agrees that it's something that you do indeed need or want. You have found a company to do the work and all seems to look good. At this point, rather than making an immediate decision to move forward swiftly to get what you want - meetings are held, emails are exchanged back and forth, time is added, people need to approve it, questions and objections are voiced...... well..... you know this example well I'm sure.

If you observe this situation or any situation just like it, you can clearly see where your time goes. It gets eaten by the simplest of things. Learn to make fast decision and you will learn the art of creating time. WAY more time! Do not hesitate to pull the trigger on decisions. Make them fast and make them now. By disciplining yourself to get into the habit of this, you can get a lot more done. You will start to have an abundance of time. Time is not the issue, the issue is the things that waste time and gobble up the little time you have. Focus on making fast decision for everything and complete cycles related to decision immediately and you will start to recapture your time.

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group