Customers

I'll never forget the excitement of having the first customer walk into my wife's barbershop the day it opened. The time, money and effort put into the shop was going to have to be recovered eight dollars at a time over the next few years.

For a business owner, every customer that walks through the door is a potential repeat customer, or a walking advertisement via word-of-mouth referrals. Of course, given poor service, this customer can potentially drive others away just as easily. This makes the quality of service, and the experience the customer has with the business vital to success. The customer is the sole means of proving the funds to keep the business in operation. This is the profit motive, and it is not only self-serving, but it also is vital to serving the customer.

In my eyes, my wife is a master of customer service, and she also gives a great haircut! I have listened to her stories over the years, and listened to her speak at length about how crucial customer service is to her business. She is aware of her competitors, and how they factor in...not only to the price of a haircut, but also the overall experience she tries to provide for the time her customers spend in her chair and in the shop. It is competition that helps keep the price of a haircut at a relatively low rate, along with the fact that people could get by without a haircut.

Juxtapose this with a government agency. It is not the aim, nor the purpose, of a government agency to make a profit. There is no profit motive in the case of the government, and this is often sold as a benefit by the politicians that work within, or govern these agencies.

The lack of a profit motive is a detriment to the government agency's customer, not a benefit. Couple this with the fact that there is no competition for the customer to resort to in case he feels slighted by the government agency. When a customer walks into a government agency, he is not looked upon in the same way as those walking into a private business. The customer is a nuisance, or at the very least, a consumer of limited resources. The government agency is not harmed by lack of customers in the same way as a private business. While it is certainly necessary for an agency to serve a certain number of customers to justify the upcoming budget, it almost certainly is not done in the most cost effective manner.

Ask yourself next time you visit a government agency if you feel like a customer. If the answer is no, wouldn't you wish for several private companies competing for your business, to provide you the service you are seeking?