Don't Treat New Customers Better than Old Ones

We're always reaching for the new customer. We really need to reach equally hard to satisfy the old ones. 

Our restaurant group has been doing business with a major supplier for more than 10 years. Our account is important to them, as we were their first sizable restaurant customer. In 1989, they began supplying the operator of a similar restaurant in a nearby city. The new customer represented less than 20 percent of our volume, yet to get the new business they priced their product almost five percent less than what we were paying. 

Their behavior was both unfair and unethical. The opportunity, in this case study, is to understand that fairness requires treating all similar customers similarly. It's not only unfair, it's stupid to play the kind of pricing game this supplier did. How would you feel if you were one of their loyal customers? 

This example might appear preposterous, but businesses do it all the time. Can you imagine being a long-time customer and finding out the man or woman down the street is getting a better price for the same or less volume? 

A company I've done business with for many years is well-intended, but sometimes ethically misguided. For years, they've made policy exceptions–a bad case of greasing the squeaky wheel. If a sales rep does something not in compliance with their policy, they look the other way. If a customer can't or won't pay certain charges, they aren't attentive to collecting. And so the story goes. 

From their point of view, they are being lenient and forgiving. In reality, however, they are being patently unfair. They are asking, even requiring, standards from some-but not from all. They make arbitrary exceptions, yet require others to tow the line. What's fair about that? Not much. 

Treating customers fairly means all similar customers are treated similarly. Any time you make an exception for one, you put every other similar customer at an unfair disadvantage. 

Offering promotional deals is fine. But make them available to everyone. You owe that fairness to all customers, all the time.