Looking Down on Customers

Despite all of the books and workshops on the importance of the customer, it is not that difficult to find workplaces in which the customer is regarded as a lesser object that is barely to be tolerated.

High selection standards, an inordinate emphasis on the technical, and an extensive amount of training are often found in such places. The highly skilled workers set an informal profile of the suitable customer; i.e. the type of customer who merits their attention. Customers who fall short are quietly regarded as nuisances, whiners, or fools. Over time, such feelings are scarcely hidden.

These attitudes are thought to be acceptable because the organization's focus has moved away from customers and toward the preservation of status. The true mission is forgotten. The workers want only those customers who are worthy recipients of their extraordinary talent.

Savvy organizations will move quickly to squelch any signs of this snobbishness and redirect the focus on where it should be: Serving the customers. Tolerating even a whiff of the anti-customer attitude is a major mistake.