Treat Your Customers as Good Friends, from Victor Niederhoffer
Susan just went to a conscious capitalism conference that she supports and heard this story from Nick about how a letter to customers admitting his failures and asking for help saved his business. I believe there are many lessons here, including the importance of keeping in touch and honoring your customers. Every business should treat their customers as good friends, I think. What do you think?
Craig Mee writes:
I found this article about ten attributes of a good friend. Maybe these are good ideas for keeping in mind when building your relationship with the markets as well.
- Keeps your secrets (unless you are about to harm yourself)
- Defends you
- Gives you good advice
- Listens to you
- Cares about your well-being
- Does not change how they treat you based on other people's feelings about you
- Tries to help you when you need it
- Shares personal things about themselves with you
- Tells you when you are wrong
- Gets over disagreements without getting crazy revenge
It also makes me think about how sometimes Mr. Market talks to you as a friend and you don't listen. Most of us treat him as an enemy. What if he is, in fact, a friend, but our insecurities and weaknesses let us down in building a strong relationship with him.