Respect Your Customers [Archive.org URL]

Respect is a fundamental value underlying human relationships. It is important in families, in education, in ethics and religion, in governing, in the military, and in the justice system. Businesses incorporate respect into their corporate codes of conduct and invoke respect in the context of human resources and diversity programs. Respect for customers is an essential ingredient of long-term performance in both the private and social sectors. Yet the word respect rarely appears in connection with marketing. This is a surprising omission, because marketing, at its core, depends on mutually satisfying relationships between buyers and sellers.

We believe that respect for customers deserves to be brought into the foreground. We also believe that many organizations have significant room for improvement, particularly in execution. Truly respecting your customers certainly doesn’t mean telling a customer “we respect you” and thinking the job is done. It often requires making choices that can have significant implications for company operations.

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