“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” – Sam Walton

Is anybody better able to make statements about customers and business than Sam Walton?

After all, he founded what is now the world’s biggest retail group, Walmart, as a discount store in Rogers, Arkansas, just under 60 years ago, in 1962. Today, that single discount store has become a group with annual revenues of well over $500 billion (2/3rds MORE than South Africa’s total GDP!), from over 10 500 stores around the world employing over 2.2 million people.

Far too often, I’ve seen business executives so entrenched in their “ivory towers” that they believe they are more important than their customers, and customers are little more than a necessary evil, in their view.

As Sam Walton said, the customer is the boss and everybody in the business can, in effect, be fired if all customers take their business elsewhere. So we need to listen carefully to our customers, exceed their expectations (or, at worst, meet them) and ensure they have a great experience when dealing with us.

And although the old adage, “The customer is always right” is still often used, it is incorrect. Nobody is always right, but the customer will always be the customer and so deserves our respect, our attention and our appreciation..

Nobody should want to be fired by their customers.

#BusinessFitness #Customers #CustomerExperience #Excellence #LifeTimeValue #Loyalty #Service #Winners #QOTW

• Some other posts around customers and loyalty:

  • “Businesses often forget about their current customers [audience] – the people who are already listening, buying, and engaging.” – Paul Jarvis
  • “Happy employees lead to happy customers, which leads to more profits.” — Vaughn Aust
  • “It’s not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It’s the customer who pays the wages.” – Henry Ford
  • Defining Your Ideal Customer Boosts Profits
  • “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” – Warren Buffett
  • Go the extra mile. It’s never crowded there.
  • Measuring the TRUE Value of Your Customers