Loving Your Customer – spelled T-I-M-E

As a parent and a spouse, there is no more revealing statement I have found than this - how you spell LOVE is T-I-M-E. It is the single most important factor for lasting relationships. Also true is that you can tell what is important to a person by looking at 2 things – their calendar and their checkbook. Where they spend their time and where they spend their money. No matter what a person says is important to them, the truth can be found upon examination of just those indicators. It is a fast and easy examination – and truly revealing. It will tell you why some relationships are great and how some have gone wrong.

Why – we tend to be pulled towards the direction of the things in our life that give us joy and we perceive to be important- even if they are not necessarily the things we would say give us joy.

So it is with a brand, a business, a job, a customer relationship.

Where does your business - and you - put your emphasis – your resources of time and money and people? Do you really want to know the customer, the consumer, the client? If so you spend enormous resource and time getting to know these people better than anyone and understanding their desires and insights needed to make your business better. You find interesting new ways to understand their habits, nuances, frustrations and what excites them. Then you take joy in building offerings designed to thrill and excite them

Or, do you SAY you are focused on the customer – yet hour after hour, day after day sit and reexamine financial metrics, pricing, organizational capabilities, hold important business meetings with influential contacts in an effort to better yourself and hit business targets. Running a business is hard work, and there is a certain excitement to the process, but if the calendar is completely filled with this, realize that it cannot be filled with thrilling a consumer with something magical.

It would be like trying to improve your relationship with your kids by working harder at the office to be a better provider – it just doesn’t work.

Are you focused on your consumer and your customer? – take a look at today’s calendar. The answer is right there.