In the old fashioned way the customer was always right, but In this century we can not think in this way anymore. We need to think more in collaborative way. When a true value is generated, not only the owner of the business wins. All people that are involved in the game win too. Are you a right customer?
In the last few months I started to use a Laundromat. It is in front of my house. It is better for us, because we don´t need to wait until our clothes are dry. So when I go there, I just put my clothes into the machine and then I don’t need to be worried about anything else.
But I always have a problem, the machines only accepts coins, so I need to go to another business ask for change. Most people that use the laundromat too, are in the same situation, we can rarely make change with each other.
One day when I was waiting for my clothes, thinking about nothing, I turned my head and I saw an incredible change machine. You can imagine my reaction. It was there, the whole time, and I never saw it before! I think that nobody that has been in this laundromat has seen the machine neither (or so I want to think, maybe it´s just a problem with me).
Despite that the laundromat has a lot of instructions of use in everywhere, the part of where to get coins was overlooked. And that is a big problem for the owner of the laundromat: Perhaps many customers out there get upset when they don´t have coins.
All this situation has made me wonder about the responsibilities of both customers and business. Who should be accountable for making a clear and understandable information system?
Maybe we can think that it is a responsibility of the management team, after all, they should be interested in their business thriving. But that is a wrong way to see business nowadays. It has to be a mutual relationship: we both need the business to keep running. In other case, I must go back to hanging my clothes to dry again.
In the old fashioned way the customer was always right. The blame would be on the company. In this century we can not think in this way anymore. We need to think more in collaborative way. When a true value is generated, not only the owner of the business wins. All people that are involved in the game win too.
I know, maybe I´m a bad customer. The right thing to do is to inform the management of the situation, through a feedback system. But they do not have it.
