In the world of business, you generally want to cater to the customer: who are they? what do they like? what do they want? how can we serve them better? how can we tempt them to buy? In the 50′s and 60′s there arose that general business motto: “The customer is always right!” but in the 90′s and here in the 10′s that business motto has changed.
The customer isn’t always right. When businesses began getting sued for hot coffee and obesity and cracks in the floor, the motto began to change to “the customer is usually right, but beware the customer” and there are countless news reports showing this silent motto to be true today. Customers return items they shouldn’t, complain about non-existent problems, and can generally be difficult for no apparent reason. Take the car salesman who was trying to “make it right” for a dissatisfied customer “I know what you are trying to do, you are just trying to MAKE ME HAPPY!” the customer yelled. Well, yes. Isn’t that a good thing?
In programming, there is a sort of a “beware the customer” stance also, and I have come across its truth a few times. You have to be careful to be kind, gracious, giving, AND still protect yourself. Sometimes it’s a customer who may not pay their bill. Another “beware” is a customer who thinks they know more than they actually do. You are asked about direction, and with your experience give it, and it isn’t taken, in favor of a worse direction. You are asked to make something that looks bad, and you don’t want to do it, but you do it to pay your rent. You are asked if “a” or “b” has any SEO value. You say “a and not ever b” and they decide to do “b” because they read online somewhere (by a wolf) that paying $900 for “b” would get them results.
There’s a certain amount of head shaking that happens when you work online. “I wish they hadn’t taken that direction, but.. it’s their site” or “I wish they hadn’t hired this other outfit, but it’s their money.” This can be also likened to a carpenter, who builds houses to the customers’ specs. “They should have put this room over here, they should have opted for that higher ceiling here. It would have made a difference. It will effect their life, it will effect their resale value.” His experience gives him the ability to give suggestions, he can only hope to be asked and then hope to be believed.
This scenario of the customer not always being right is true in every business. We hope they take our advice, we give only the advice we know to be solid, but of course can have no control over the direction customers decide to take. And it’s their freedom to choose what they would like to do, after all. That’s the joy of making a choice.
Where absolute JOY comes in for the carpenter is when he gets to build his OWN HOUSE and put all of his knowledge to work. Every good thing learned will be used. Every piece of advice others may not have taken, can be put into practice. He gets now to realize the full joy of making choices, also.
I am so looking forward to finishing mommatown.com and weschool.org. I hope this year, or 2013, will see it come to life. It is my house, and my joy, and maybe my legacy. Have fun out there.
