Today we dethrone the King. Down comes the crown, down comes the royal gown of velvet and soft felt and down comes the red carpet runway. 
Today we dethrone the King. Down comes the headdress of finely picked plumes, down comes the cloak of vervet monkey fur and down comes the floor mat of intricately woven reed.
But why oh why must the King be dethroned? Why are all the instruments of power, glory and dominance going going gone….reminiscent of the first pummel of the auctioneer’s gavel?
And the answer’s simple – because the time has come. The time has come to debunk the old adage that Customer Is King. And as with all things in life, change is inevitable. Today we graduate from what we’ve known best and move on to the next level.
Let’s look a little bit at this King business shall we? What happens around the King? Here are a few typical activities:-
  •  All subjects bow down and prostrate themselves in awe and honour
  • The King is a dictator, decreeing stuff left right and center
  • All communication to the King is by carefully selected proxies
  • The King’s word is unquestionable, unchallengeable, un-bendable. It is law
  • The King is surrounded by a ring of protectors in their suits of armour
  • There’s carefully orchestrated distance between the King and everybody else.

So with this in mind, is this really the desirable position of the customer today? Does this adequately describe the ideal customer-supplier relationship? It all sounds archaic doesn’t it? Like it should be enshrouded in a time warp and spun back to the medieval era where it nicely belongs right?
Can we therefore shrug off this cloak of royalty and declare that from today The Customer is a Friend? Yes a Friend. And in the spirit of the already started discussion let’s list a few typical activities around a friend:-
  • They are greeted very warmly on sight
  • They have an emotional connection and have a special place at heart
  • They are treated with respect and dignity
  • Their needs are well understood, tapped into and met at all levels.
  • Their feedback is genuinely sought and treated with  importance.
  • When things to awry, acknowledgement of failure is done with a promise to rectify the error and immediately improve.

So……. Do you agree with me that Down Comes The King and Up Goes The Friend?

If so, then from this day forwards the ‘Customer is Friend’ and we get down to work to convert all the King’s subjects to fast friends. Quite a task lies ahead yes?