Of the old adage that the customer is always right...

Things are getting even busier at the shop what's with the festive season fast approaching. Given such, our blog post has taken a back seat. But we will continue to write about interesting stuff that we may have come across this month, time permitting. And speaking of interesting stuff, we chanced upon a Straits Times piece last week on an interview with the incoming President of SATS, the chief ground-handling and in-flight catering service provider at Singapore Changi Airport. What caught our attention was a quote made in the interview, when he spoke about his third priority (as President & CEO) in finding the right customers and partners. "I know the old adage that the customer is always right. But in this day and age, the right customer and the right partner are (also) critical. With the right customer, you can do a lot more and when you put global solutions together, it becomes a very powerful thing. It has to be the right kind of growth; growth for growth's sake may not be sustainable." (sic)

It takes someone with guts to say such words. And we admire him for it. What we infer is that customers may not be always right. And it is way more important to establish a strong and lasting relationship with the right customers. Continuing to deal with everyone (whether they are the right type of customers or otherwise) for the sake of growth may not be sustainable. This is something that we have experienced in our business over the course of our 21 years as well. At first we try our darndest to please everyone, even bending over backwards to the point of falling. Then we realized at some point that we can no longer do so without affecting how we operate. That was when we started enforcing our terms and conditions of sales more strictly. There were some pushbacks of course, especially from customers who were used to getting whatever they want when they wanted it. Having said that, these folks are still very much the exception rather than norm, as we are blessed with a large group of "right" customers who are reasonable and understanding people.

We are nowhere near the size of SATS business-wise and there are no global solutions for us to talk about. But we firmly believe in the notion that with all businesses big or small, having the right customers/partners is critical. And as we have said many a time, we cannot please everyone. So there may come a need to forgo a piece of business/customer because it is, in the word of the new head honcho of SATS, not right.

Here's the link for anyone who is interested in the full interview. However, only ST subscribers may access: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/kerry-moks-taking-sats-beyond-airports

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