Customers as a Valuable Asset
Yesterday I gave a presentation at a conference on how to increase customer profitability. The audience was a mix of CPAs and their IT executives. About 50 people attended my session. I started by asking a question: Who here feels that customers are their firm's most valuable asset? Surprisingly -- to me, anyway -- only four or five people raised their hands. After sharing with them Don Peppers and Martha Rogers' quote from Return on Customer, "Without customers, you don't have a business, you have a hobby," most of the people in the room started nodding in agreement. No customers, no revenue, no business.
I went on to explain that the next most valuable asset companies have is employees: not just their quality and skill, but also their customer knowledge. That knowledge can be as powerful an influence on the customer experience and on sales as a recommendation from another customer.
Would you agree? What do you think is an organization's most valuable asset?
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