why customer service and customer facing employees want to do a good job but short term business goals prevent this from happening.
And there's the rub - I'd guess Sewell wrote in the days when a dealer would grow his network and build his customer base, making a decent return on each sale. Sadly nowadays, at least in the US, many dealers' objective is just to meet the next payroll, against a market in free-fall and suppliers that have failed them. Every dollar must be exploited for short term survival. There are parallels with airlines.
I have to comment on
James 1077's posting (at the risk of being blacklisted from PPr bashes!). Maybe I have a different perspective here but as a recipient of 'beancounter' statements, I'd be
alarmed to see one with uncharged listings. Here's why, and I'm being a little brutal:
- Every item on your bill represents costs you have incurred to create value for me. You're entitled to recoup these and add your markup.
- If you're comp'ing me some items, I'm going to wonder how competitive your rate is for the others - maybe I should see who else is out there?
- Diligence: If you're as free with
my lesser interests as you are with your own, maybe I need to pay closer attention to you...
- ... and maybe I should question the longer term viability of your business, as your other customers may be thinking the same.
- Finally, and here's the biggest: If there's more than just $50 of 'no charge' work, I have to alert our Ethics Committee, as favours can imply conflicts of interest. There may also be provisions in contract law and antitrust law that render undercharging as questionable, or worse. Neither are my areas, but I'd want assurances in both.
Finally, just so I don't like a
complete ass, I've never turned down a beer on the house
