Page 63 - Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization

44 Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit

writing off customers, we can predict the day in the future when you’ll
be out of business. (We’ll chart it on a big piece of paper for you if you
like.) Think you have a huge market and it’s okay to kiss off customers
and replace them down the road? We all watched Detroit automakers
make that assumption and let imports chip away at the edges until there
was little remaining as a core.

We suggest in the strongest terms that you think of every one of
your customers as a core customer—and treat the loss of a customer as
a tragedy to be avoided.