COMMENTS ON SELLERS' AND CUSTOMERS' OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES TO EACH OTHER
by Alan J. Zell, Ambassador of Selling

1. Anyone in business, be they a business, practice, school, government (yes, schools and government are big business) or individuals have obligations and responsibilities. And, so do their customers*.

* Customers . . . usually thought to be the potential and current users of any organization's output. But customers can and do come in many variations; customers are those being asked to accept and adopt an idea, information, service or product.
Sometimes they are called clients, or patients. Business owners and their advisors are also customers to each other. Both have and are customers of their associates, customers, staff, family, close friends, acquaintances . . . and these are all customers to each other.
Everyone is asking their customer(s) to accept their idea, information, proficiency, changes, policies, procedures, service or product in return for the customer's time, effort and/or money.

Usually, businesses associate the traditional use of the word “customers” with their customers paying their bills on time. Isn't that enough you might ask? No, just as businesses have obligations and responsibilities to their customers, so do customers* have obligations and responsibilities.

First, let's review what businesses' or individual's obligations and responsibilities are to their customers:

Obligation #1 -- is to what is being offered -- its ideas, information, policies, procedures, attitudes, skills, knowledge, changes, products or services . . . that these are presented in the best possible manner; that if what is offered doesn't fit what customers to want or need, it is because it does not fit rather than because it was a poor presentation. It would not be unfair to say that better than 75% of all ideas, services and products are not accepted because of poor presentations rather than because they were poor ideas, services or products.

Obligation #2 -- is to one's customers . . . that they are given enough choices so that they believe they will have made the right decision. If customers do not believe they have enough choices, they will delay a decision until they sense they have enough choices to make their best decision. In other words, if a business does do not make a marketplace for their customers, customers will say no until they make a marketplace for themselves.

Obligation #3 -- is to make sure that one's customers are never embarrassed for having made the decision to buy or even contemplate buying or buying what the business offers.

A business's or individual's prime responsibility to their customers is to ensure that the person(s) most qualified to spend the customer's time, space, effort and/or money efficiently is working with the customer. It is not who makes the sale that is important; it is that the sale is made that is important.

But business is not all one-sided and while there are obligations and responsibilities owed for money received, there are obligations and responsibilities that go along with getting products and services in return for money.

Customer Obligation #1 is to expect and demand that all products and services be presented in their best possible manner understanding that there are limitations of time, space, effort and money . . . but not to accept these as excuses for poor presentations.

Customer Obligations #2 is to complain when products or services are not presented in their best possible manner to those in charge of making the decisions, usually upper management, as to how products or services are presented while, at the same time not putting all the onus on the salesperson.

Customer Obligation #3 is to give feedback to those they buy from when things are not right when they could be made better or when actions need to be taken to improve the buying environment.

Customers' prime responsibility is to offer enough information about their wants, needs, desires, specifications, etc. so that the vendor does not waste time, effort and money by misspending the customer's time, effort and/or money due to the wrong information.

Yes, customers have obligations and responsibilities to those they buy from and when they do not exercise those obligations and responsibilities they will in turn prevent their suppliers from exercising their obligations and responsibilities.

This article was written to help you and your business. If you believe some of these articles will be helpful to your business, please e-mail me your comments on how you will apply them. ajz

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