You’ve surely heard of the maxim “The customer is always right.” But are they, really?
Suzanne Lu-Bascara, associate director of SPI Global, dissected this concept in her keynote speech during the opening of the Digital, Business, Tourism and Culinary Art Expo 2011 last month at Foundation University.{{more}}
Her conclusion: This concept is unrealistic and unlimiting.
“It made employees unhappy in the face of unruly customers because the management would have to side with the costumer even if the employee was right,” she said.
She said the trend is for customers and employees to work together as partners. “Problems of our customers are our problems inasmuch as our problems are their problems too,” she said.
Bascara cited an instance at her workplace where they initially had problems meeting customers’ deadlines. “Their volumes were unpredictable. On the weeks where volume was high, our employees would go on overtime but there would be nothing for them to do next week, when the work volume would dip.”
So, they presented their problem to the customer, who saw the need to keep the volume of work steady in order to maintain the volume without making employees go on overtime.
“If this happened 10 years ago, the client would have probably said that it was not their problem and that if we could not cope, they will just look for another supplier,” she said.
Another trend in today’s dynamic business world is complementing coexistence. This model, as exemplified by food vendors in Bangkok, has one vendor selling only one commodity. One would sell rice and noodles, another would sell soft drinks, another would sell barbecue and another would sell soup. “Every vendor stands a better chance of having all their food sold than having 10 tocino stalls next to each other, like we do in the Philippines,” she said.
Bascara’s speech focused on the theme, “Working in a collaborative environment.”
Victor Vicente “Dean” Sinco, vice president for finance and administration, said the successful Digital, Business, Tourism and Culinary Art Expo 2011 was visited by students not only from Foundation University but from other schools, colleges and universities in Dumaguete and Negros Oriental.