A DSP account manager asks "Is the customer always right?"

A great blog from a member of DSP's account mangement team...

As a Microsoft and Oracle database solutions provider, it goes without saying that, our clients’ success is key to our customer experience strategy. Their satisfaction is something that the team at DSP do not only want to achieve, we want to drive beyond that, and we want to gain their enthusiasm and loyalty.

When I first started in the IT industry during the ‘90s, IT departments were losing their mysticism. With the rise of the PC and fall of the Mainframe and with users’ in-turn becoming more knowledgeable, the Wizards of the computer were called upon to adopt a friendly and approachable face. They often adopted a customer service mantra coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, which stated “The customer is always right”. Whatever the best intentions from this philosophy, it caused no end of problems for IT tacticians and strategists, how can anyone refuse a customer request ever again?

The point of engaging in a technology partner relationship is to get a job done, or to analgise it, to win a race. At the time the client may not have the resources to win the race or even to enter it. They may be constrained by time or skills deficient. This partnership should form a winning team. However, having the best bike, car or trainers or the best rider, driver or runner in place is not necessarily going to make a winning team. What is also needed is clear team communications, physio to repair issues, coaching to gain direction and a myriad of other backup staff, with all the team understanding the type of race they are entered in, any hurdles along the way and where the winning line is.

So, in today’s knowledge driven economies does “The customer is always right” still apply? Well, they are certainly never wrong! As we all know this mantra has had to evolve over the years, with the adoption of ITIL, Agile and other best practices, with the elevation of IT managers to the Executive board level. The change in strategic thinking has empowered some modern businesses to have a more balanced, cost effective and operationally driven, view of their IT road map, making the term “The customer and you come first” a far better mantra and key to mutual success and that can only enhance the experience of working with expert Microsoft and Oracle consultants