“Customer satisfaction sucks. Bob Nardelli, who was head of GE Power Systems and is now CEO of Home Depot, says you need to shift your thinking from ‘customer satisfaction’ to ‘customer profitability’. The question is, he says ‘Are we contributing to the customer’s bottom line?’ That’s your agenda: not ‘Is the customer satisfied?’ but ‘How have we contributed to their profitability?’ " Or, if you deal direct with consumers, how have you contributed to helping them live their life the way they want to live it?

- Tom Peters, described as ‘the Ur-guru (guru of gurus) of management’ by Fortune Magazine, speaking at a one-day seminar to mark the twentieth anniversary of his and Bob Waterman's book In Search of Excellence.

This tip is a sample from a book I am putting together called
Take One A Day
365 Ways to
Get Closer
to Your Customer