one step ahead of the shoe shine
As a professional who has worked in several highly direct client-driven set of industries, the words ‘client satisfaction’ are oft used to measure success. But to what lengths should an individual or a company go to keep the customer satisfied? No answers for now, just a few words of wisdom….
The old saying that the “customer is always right” really doesn’t provide much guidance on client satisfaction. And actually it does the customer a disservice. Much of the reason why the customer is purchasing (or potentially purchasing) a service or product from you, it is because they don’t have the skill set to complete it or create it themselves. Instead, I would propose that the motto should be the “customer may not always be right, but they always have the power.” It has helped lend me a new perspective on client interactions.
Yet, even with this “enlightened” frame of mind, customers will still go off the reservation and create headaches. So I offer another help to the situation and keep you focused on your task at hand:
It’s the same old story
Everyhwere I go,
I get slandered,
Libeled,
I hear words I never heard
In the Bible
And I’m one step ahead of the shoe shine1
Two steps away from the county line
Just trying to keep my customers satisfied….. satisfied.
Nothing like a little folk music from Paul Simon to keep a smile on one’s face in even the most difficult of client situations. And the most important lyric puts it into perspective: you only have to be “one step” ahead, not solve all of the client issues at once.( And, yes, I have been caught humming the tune to the song in the middle of one of these situations. )
References
- There is no definitive interpretation of ‘shoe shine.’ I always that it akin to what a baseball coach does to an umpire when he doesn’t like a call: give him a ‘shoe shine’ by kicking dirt at the umpire. [↩]