We talk about our customers a lot - we are very proud of them and inspired by them as much as we are sustained by them.
Before we can share what makes our customers so great, I have to explain what customers are to are to us - colleagues first and always.
All of our customers "find" us through people we know and many are customers. By intent, we do not advertise and we do not have a yellow page ad, or listing. It's not that we don't welcome new business, we do, but we want more than just business - we want to build companies, or at least help to.
So customers as they have come to be regarded, doesn't quite cover what customers are to us. Customers are colleagues to us and very often they are dear friends.
Customer Colleagues
In our company we refer to the people that hire and retain us as Customer Colleagues. Our goal is to do our jobs so well that they no longer need us at all - and by doing business that way, our customers grow and that growth is what they need us to continue to service. As they grow we apply the same effort as before and the cycle of growth and the building of lasting value continues.
New Customer Colleagues don't always understand what we mean, or how it works at first, but they do trust the friends that brought them to us and we're never in a hurry. I'd rather wait years to add a new customer - until the time was right for both sides, than rush into a relationship that is inappropriate for a business. In short order, new customers understand what we mean when we say that all customers are colleagues. There is a lot of technology out here and a lot of technologists supporting it. There are very few technology companies that are also business development companies, which is what Liberating Technologies in fact is - the technology is a vehicle, or a fleet of them to be more accurate, which is used to transport businesses and people to higher levels of success. What separates customers from colleagues is that opposite customers technology companies place themselves and their success ahead of the customer. We do the reverse and by doing so, place the growth of our customers ahead of our own needs - and profit. By doing this we can assure that the greatest number of customers grows, and rapidly. As customers grow, they need more and in that growth is where we build our business.
The Best Colleagues Make The Best Customers
So what makes customers great? It's not as easy a question to answer as some would think, but it is worth a try, because frankly, customers that are colleagues deserve the mention. Great customers are not defined by revenue, or profits. That had to be said up front and set aside, because in business sometimes great customers can't pay, or they can't pay on time. Of course businesses, including mine, absolutely depend upon customers paying and at rates which are profitable, but payment cannot be the goal, or even near the top of things that make customers great. What makes customers great is best defined by a vision that holds that all things must grow - people, lines of business and most especially their own customers. Great customers do not look toward cost savings as a means to either stay in, or grow business. Great customers continually pursue new initiatives and grow their businesses. Just as with individuals, we advise, "when you need money, make more money!" Great customers do not fixate on costs, or revenue - they fixate on their own excellence and the excellence of their people and products. Great customers think in terms of decades and quarter centuries and their own personal impact on the course their professions will take long after they have retired and passed their businesses on to family and the team members that helped them build on their ideas.
Different Dreams, Shared Values
Great customers are simultaneously very different from us, and nearly identical. Their dreams and aspirations are different, but their view of the world is the same. They see the world as a place that not only can be made better, but that they are going to be one of the players making it better for all. Notice that I did not say that great customers are defined by what they believe and that such beliefs are the same as ours - such things do not matter. What does matter is that great customers believe that all is possible and that they can do anything they set their mind and energy to.
Patience is not just a Virtue, it is the Realization that Persistent Consistency Unlocks all Doors
Great customers never quit. They may get mad as all get out, but they never quit - so long as we never quit. Great customers understand that the world is not flat and that coming to understand that takes time and effort - often over many years. Great customers have very little idea of what technologists do, but they understand that great technology companies will persist and consistently deliver positive results.
Technology is an Asset Not a Cost
Great customers share our definition of what technology is - that which enhances human performance, or advances the human condition, or both. Any technology company serving the small and medium sized business market knows that most of their customers will have IT/MIS interests placed under an accountant. Accountants count for the most part and as such, technology is treated as a cost - as a necessary evil. This can be catastrophic for customers, but with the right technology company, this practice can be reversed and accountants brought into solutions which present IT/MIS investments as assets and sources of revenue. By serving customers as colleagues, technology companies can fulfill the vital roles smaller businesses need, but can't necessarily afford. Even the smallest company needs a strong CIO and CTO and a diverse IT/MIS team of engineers and developers; however, very few smaller business can afford them. There is an enormous opportunity in this need and by working as a company's IT/MIS team in a box, technology companies can serve in these vital roles - provided they are absolutely sincere about learning their customers' businesses and how they operate and make money. Great customers embrace this and come to see technology providers as members of their own teams. When this happens technology costs are converted and become assets that fulfill the needs smaller companies have.
Making Decisions and Conducting Interventions
Technology companies very often forget why they exist and few learn what information technologies are supposed to do for business and the people in them. Great customers quickly teach technologists what matters most and that ultimately, all information technologies have the same requirement - they must present information and products [not data] and that information products must allow people to make better decisions, and or conduct timely and effective interventions. Great customers understand that their most effective work with technologists is to define requirements, prioritize them and share their vision for how information is to be presented as a product - a finalized representation of the information they need in order to make decisions. In simple terms, never deploy technology for the sake of technology alone, and deploy technologies in a way that causes them to deliver information as a product that can be consumed. Great customers focus on finished products and they define it - then the technologist uses such products to work backward from there to enable solutions that produce them.
We all Do What We All Do
Great customers trust themselves. They trust great technologists to do what we do and they don't do what we do - no more than they want us to practice medicine, design buildings, or survey lands. Great customers let us work as great technologists and they respect our craft and science as much as we respect theirs.
Good Enough is Never Good Enough
Great customers are never satisfied, but they are always content and confident that their next initiative will be supported. Successful people and businesses are never satisfied with technology and they should not be. There are limits to technology and there are never any limits on what great customers aspire to do. Technologists have to accept that and not take offense when customers don't seem to be satisfied. People and businesses move at the speed of thought and that will always be well ahead of our ability to provide solutions. Customers understand this and they like to drive our processes in this way. We work best when inspired by customers that understand that all things are possible and what seems impossible today, will seem old hat tomorrow. So we're candid with our customers and share the truth that their ideas and understanding are ahead of our ability to bring technologies up to support them.
Anything Worth Doing May Be Very Hard to Do
Great customers admire technologists that continually work to do the impossible. They want and demand the best - of all things, be they people, or the equipment they use. Our customers understand that much of what they want does not exist yet and that we may have to invent it, build it and integrate it.
Nothing is Ever Finished
Great customers and great technology companies not only accept that nothing is ever finished, they create an environment that ensures that nothing is ever finished entirely - they are always growing and always building and new things always have to be added. In the coming weeks and months I am going to be reviewing each of our customers here and what makes them great and how they have made us better as technologists and as people. I'm going to share what we do together, how we do it and why we do it. I'll share lot's of pictures, some video and introduce you to the men and women that have done so much to inspire all of us and drive our pursuits of excellence.
Thanks for reading,
Lloyd