The Customer is Always Right - Learn the Law

The Law of Customer Satisfaction: The customer is always right.

The law of customer satisfaction is also called “rule number one”. We live in a consumer oriented market economy. Never has the consumer had so much information and power. Every company, large or small, must be thinking day and night about how to please their customers faster, better and cheaper than the competition.

The first result of the Law of Customer Satisfaction says that, “If ever the customer seems to be wrong, refer back to law number one.”

The very best companies in the world are built on this philosophy. They are obsessed with customer service and are constantly looking for ways to please their customers better than any of their competitors.The very best companies in the world are built on this philosophy. They are obsessed with customer service and are constantly looking for ways to please their customers better than any of their competitors.
Not only that, but they are always looking to exceed the customer’s past experience. In every industry, the most successful companies are those in which customer satisfaction is the driving force of all their activities.

The second result of the Law of Customer Satisfaction says: “All customer satisfaction comes from people dealing with other people.”

You cannot satisfy people with material things. People are emotional beings and can only be satisfied as the result of their interactions with other people. According to a Harvard study, 68% of dissatisfied customers who changed suppliers did so because of the indifference of one or more people in the company.68% of dissatisfied customers who changed suppliers did so because of the indifference of one or more people in the company.
This is the reason most successful companies have very clear customer satisfaction policies. Everyone in those organizations is committed to treating customers exceptionally.

For example, the Walt Disney Corporation hires thousands of college students to work at the Disney Theme Parks in the summertime. These students are hired in the middle of May and trained for four to six weeks in their functions. They then work for approximately eight weeks of the summer season when children are out of school and the theme parks are the busiest.

When the Disney people were asked why it is that the students receive such rigorous training, lasting four to six weeks, to then only work for eight weeks before going back to school, their reply reveals a lot about the Disney philosophy. Disney executives explain that the students are drilled in their jobs to the point where they can do them without thinking. This allows them to concentrate their attention on the visitors, or “guests,” as they are called.

The third result of the Law of Customer Satisfaction is: “The best companies invariably have the best people.”

The best companies learned a long time ago that the people they select to work for them will largely determine their success.The best companies learned a long time ago that the people they select to work for them will largely determine their success.
Their hiring process is a long one and they are very careful in the interviewing process as well as checking references. If the wrong person is hired, he or she can cause a lot of damage to the company’s reputation before they are let go. The ability to attract and keep good people is essential to your long-term success as an executive.

The fourth result of the Law of Customer Satisfaction is: “The key role of management is to achieve the maximum return on investment in human resources towards satisfying customers.”

You have two choices with any job. You can either do the job yourself or you can get someone else to do it. As a manager, your job is to get things done through others rather than doing it yourself.

One final and key observation on customer satisfaction to remember: The employees of a company will always treat the customers the way the management treats them. The employees of a company will always treat the customers the way the management treats them.
Whenever you are treated exceptionally well by people in any store or restaurant, you know that that place has a good manager who treats the staff well. Whenever someone is treated poorly, for any reason, you know that the person he is dealing with is usually treating him this way in an attempt to get back at a manager who he feels is treating him badly.

Leadership by example is one of the best skills someone can implement; treat others as you would like to be treated.

Ways to apply this law immediately:

1. Resolve today to give your customers the very highest quality and quantity of service in the industry. Never be satisfied with second best.
2. Determine where you and your company ranks based on the four levels of customer satisfaction described below. Develop a plan of action to move toward the highest levels.

The four levels of customer satisfaction –

1. The first, the bare minimum for survival, is meeting customer expectations. What are the

basic expectations of your customers, and how could you meet them with greater consistency?

2. The second level of customer satisfaction is when you exceed customer expectations. What additional service features could you create that would go beyond what your competitors are doing?
3. The third level is where you “delight” your customers. What could you do that would pleasantly surprise your customers, something completely beyond their expectations?
4. Finally, the fourth level of customer satisfaction, only reached by the most successful and respected organizations, is where you “amaze” your customers. This is where you are so good at going beyond everything they would expect that they not only buy from you again and again, but they tell their friends to buy from you as well.

In what ways could you design your customer relation policies so that you amaze your customers?

Brian Tracy - The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success