I think this is essential for any business to survive. Any time I need to communicate with my customers, I like to "proof read" my e-mail etc as if my customer is reading it. Being in business I have to deal with vendors as their "customer". It is amazing to me how some treat me as if I am being a pain in their a**. It is sad to me that most major companies are more interested in the profit margin than they are those that make that profit margin possible! Their customers. Most small businesses offer the best customer service, a little more expensive but customer service goes a long way for me.
Well, if you're a business offering a standardized product/service, it's difficult. Because there will be some customers who really want top notch customer service and other customers who would prefer bottom barrel pricing, even if the level of customer service suffers. It can be impractical to cater to different ends of the customer needs, so in reality most businesses have to make a decision and compromise somewhere in the middle, hopefully somewhere that will allow them to get the maximum amount of business from the maximum number of customers. In some cases it's all possible the profit margins could be very thin and the business already has plenty of other customers and doesn't really need your business. These are situations where a large group of people need a product but don't really have the ability or willingness to pay for it. I have a family member in a business like this. He deals with a lot of lower income customers, and he explained to me why he gets short-tempered and impatient when they ask him too many questions or start wanting all sorts of things. It's almost not worth his time. And this business is in the discount line; there's a lot of other places the customers could go but they would have to pay a lot more money.
