The customer is not always right.
I’ve learned dozens of lessons over the last 10+ years as a product manager. But, one of the most jarring ones is the idea that letting go of customers is necessary to succeed long-term.
There’s a famous quote from Harry Gordon Selfridge, “the customer is always right.” Unless you’ve been living under a rock, there’s no doubt you haven’t heard that at least once in your life.
However, like many of life’s famous quotes, there’s actually more to quote:
“The customer is always right, in matters of taste.”
Debate over its exact origins and wordings aside, this segues into a valuable lesson for any business or product: “your ideal customer is your ideal customer until one day they’re not.”
As your product grows and evolves, it is inevitable that at some point, some subset of your customers will no longer get the value they need from your product and/or evolve into customers that no longer fit wit your business model or purpose.
And that’s okay. Business is a two way street. If the customer’s probably have been definitively resolved, then they no longer have a need for you or your product. Conversely, if a customer’s needs are no longer something you or your product addresses, then you have reasonable need to keep them as your customer.
A couple years back, I had a client who had undergone a merger and thus several business processes had changed. This prompted them to ask for a slew of custom developments in my product that, frankly speaking, would be expensive to build and maintain (especially as it would only serve one client). It did not help either that this client was one of our first.
Long story short, I ended up “firing” this client as committing to their asks would have been an ordeal for my team to support over the long-term (bad for the client) and also hindered our ability to take on new clients (bad for our business). Mind you I didn’t outright say “nope, peace out and good luck.” We actually had a candid conversation that our businesses were going in different directions now and that continuing would not be in either’s best interests.
And that’s okay. Not every relationship’s meant to last forever. It takes an amount of maturity and experience to know when it’s time to say “bye.” So, as your product grows and scales, respect your customers and be honest to whether you should continue to help them or part ways.
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