The Customer is King: Ignore Them and Watch Your Business Die

The £10,000 Mistake

A businessman walks into a car dealership, dressed casually—nothing flashy, just jeans and a t-shirt. He spends ten minutes looking at different models, but no one approaches him. Salespeople are busy chatting, checking their phones, or helping “better-looking” prospects.

Frustrated, he walks out, drives five minutes down the road to another dealership, and buys a £10,000 car—paying in full.

A week later, the first dealership’s manager finds out. Furious, he asks the team, “Why didn’t anyone serve him?”

One of the salespeople shrugs, “He didn’t look like a serious buyer.”

That dealership lost a sale—maybe even a lifetime customer—because of arrogance and bad service. And guess what? This happens every single day in businesses across the world.

Mahatma Gandhi Had It Right

Mahatma Gandhi once said:

“A customer is the most important visitor on the premises. He is not dependent on us: we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our world, he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business, he is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him: he is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

Customers hold all the power.

• If they’re happy, they stay.
• If they’re not, they leave.
• If they’re really unhappy, they’ll take as many people with them as possible.

Marketing: The Art of Knowing What They Want

Most people think marketing is just advertising. Wrong.

Marketing is understanding what customers want and giving it to them better than anyone else. If you don’t, someone else will. Simple.

Take Blockbuster—the biggest video rental company in the world at one point. Customers hated late fees. Instead of listening, Blockbuster ignored them. Then along came Netflix, offering a subscription model with no late fees. Customers left in droves. Blockbuster went from ruling the industry to bankruptcy in a few years.

Same with Nokia—once the king of mobile phones. They underestimated how much people wanted smartphones. Apple and Samsung listened, adapted, and took over. Now, Nokia is a ghost of its former self.

Bad Service? Say Goodbye to Your Customers

This applies to every industry, even those that don’t have obvious competition.

• Banks – Treat customers like an inconvenience, and they’ll take their money elsewhere.
• Supermarkets – Make checkout a nightmare, and they’ll switch to online shopping.
• NHS Hospitals – If patients get poor care, they’ll travel miles for better treatment or vote for a government that promises change.

It’s all the same—ignore your customers, and you won’t have any left.

The Survival Rule: Please the Customer or Perish

Here’s the reality:

• It costs five times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one.
• A 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25% to 95%.
• 80% of customers say they’d switch brands after just one bad experience.

So, what should businesses be doing?

1. Listen – Ask customers what they want, and actually pay attention.
2. Deliver – Give them what they asked for, not what you think they need.
3. Go the Extra Mile – The little things—like a friendly greeting—make all the difference.
4. Fix Problems Fast – No one expects perfection, but they do expect you to own up and fix issues quickly.

No Customers, No Business

At the end of the day, your organisation is nothing without customers. Treat them well, and they’ll reward you with loyalty and growth. Ignore them, and they’ll take their money, their trust, and their business elsewhere.

So here’s a challenge for you: What’s one thing you can do today to improve your customer experience? Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear your thoughts.