You Work For The Customer, Not Your Boss

“The customer is the boss. Not me. Not our CEO. It’s the customer.” This was the message I gave my team during a time when our customers were not happy because we were continually dropping the ball.

Two years ago, I stepped up to help manage operations for my father’s screen printing business. One of the first things I did was sit down and converse with people about their experience working at the company. I asked key questions, looking for insights as to what’s working and what isn’t.

I didn’t just speak with managers and supervisors, I spoke with everyone.

One thing that came out of these conversations, specifically from people on the floor was: the disease of me.

Me, as in I’m the boss and you do as I say.

Bad leaders are bottlenecks

To change the situation, I wanted the team to feel the pain. So, I started printing the emails and text messages, I and customer service received, from frustrated, and annoyed customers and showed them to the team. This is when I started my “customer is boss” campaign to align the team on what matters: fulfilling the customer’s needs and exceeding their expectations.

But I didn’t leave it to their imagination as to what it looks like. I started with the following:

It isn’t customer service’s or production’s fault when the customer isn’t satisfied with our service; it’s all our fault.
We work for the customer, not your boss.

Unfortunately, the tweet (do we still call them that?) below is true. And it was true in my father’s business.

You work for your boss, not your company. pic.twitter.com/Cpxr8bJOjp

— Aakash Gupta (@aakashg0) June 25, 2024

There is only one boss: the customer.

Remember, every business starts the same way: solving a problem for a customer.

Along the way the business grows, employees are hired and they start working for the boss. This is not how it should be. For any business to reach its full potential you have to internalize that the customer is boss: lose sleep over the success of your customer, not over the success of your business.