Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/937683
54 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2018 If you buy into the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," then just about everyone you deal with is your customer, which means that you should treat them as such. Let's look at our business and talk about who our customer really is. First, you have your traditional customer, the guy you sell stuff to so that he in return can give you money that makes your business work. Some would say you have to be nice to this guy or you will go out of business. The first reason to treat this transactional custom- er like gold is because the other golden rule applies: he has the gold and you want it, so give him something. We get that, and it's called business. But customer service goes far beyond that. The thing is, when running a business, we do not want just one deal, one transaction, with any of our customers. We want to gain our cus- tomers' business for life. Take the grocery busi- ness, for example. Grocers take the long view when it comes to their customers. They fig- ure out how much the customer spends in the store every week, and they multiply that by 52 weeks; then they multiply that by 10 years and they get the true value of a customer. That's why they offer you all those handy-dandy dis- count cards and other loyalty programs. It also doesn't hurt that by getting you to join their loyalty clubs they also get to know everything about you, including what you buy and Who is the Customer? It's Only Common Sense Feature Column by Dan Beaulieu