Customers as pigs

Pigs represent wealth in the Chinese calendar. Those born under this sign will reap the rewards of plenty. In the Philippine context, roasted pigs are served on special occasions like fiestas, birthdays, victory celebrations, and Christmas parties. On these days of merriment, one is allowed to throw all dietary caution to the wind in order to "pig out".

The pig is also a symbol of savings, as in the piggy bank. One saves for that proverbial rainy month by dropping a peso a day into the rotund coin container.

There is also a pejorative side to the pig. It represents gastronomic hedonism. In other words, gluttony. Pigs are, likewise, a bad name for gross people who are messy in their domiciles and exhibit intolerable hygienic habits, as in "you live like a pig". Finally, bad cops are "pigs", meaning, they are lowly creatures. Let us use these metaphors.

Entrepreneurs must, at all times, look at their customers as walking, talking wads of money. Every customer deserves that much respect. Never underestimate the purchasing power of even the most miserly customer. A peso worth taking is a peso worth wooing. When a customer walks inside your shop, the every-consuming thought must be the emptying of his or her wallet. Have no mercy.

The hard part is to make the customer smile while splurging. The art of customer fleecing is a delicate one. You must be relentless without being pushy, aggressive yet endearing, flattering but sincere.

You must hound the customer while maintaining distance. You must win the sale but never allow the customer to lose the bargain.

The great salesman always makes the customer feel rich enough to part with his money. The way to do this is to treat all customers like millionaires even if they’re not. The pig who feels wealthy will act wealthy.

Celebrate all customers, large or small. Thank them for their business with or without a sale. Thank them even after they have left your shop. Get to know them well so that you can call them occasionally, just to say hello. Give them special membership cards or discount coupons for their kind purchase and to coax their continuing patronage. Send them greeting cards. Add a token gift to their every purchase. Go out of your way for that extra service, that extra gesture that makes the customer feel like a birthday boy or girl doted upon by loved ones.

The employees of any business enterprise must come to work with the joyful spirit of party goers. Enthusiasm is contagious. If customers feel that their very presence is enough cause for a celebration, then they will be as generous as any celebrant ought to be. They will "pig out" in your shop.

Entrepreneurs should also regard customers as their piggy banks. What entrepreneurs must "save" and put in the piggy bank every day is goodwill. The entrepreneur must accumulate trust and build lasting relationships every time there is a customer encounter. This requires constant customer engagement, preferably for each and every transaction.

Some establishments have ‘systematized’ this through membership cards, which earn points that are convertible to gifts or cash discounts. These memberships are even stratified into blue cards, silver clubs, golden groups or platinum crowds. Oftentimes, however, it gets too systematized and the customer no longer feels like a preferred buyer or suki. Offering installment sales, perpetual high discounts, and liberal credit terms are other means of customer endearment. The idea is to make the customer keep on coming back for more "piggy banking".

Pigs love to wallow in their sties. Another approach to customer pigging is to transform your business establishment into a wallowing sty. A great customer sty has the following characteristics:

There is a large array of goods and services to choose from;

There are bulk discounts for volume order;

Doing business with the company is a lot of fun because the people and the experience are fun;

There are many customers trying to buy the same goods and services;

The company will go out of its way to customize for the customer;

If the items desired are not available, the company will look for them by asking other establishments;

The customer leaves the company premises thinking they bought a "steal"; and

Customers are allowed their whims and idiosyncracies (i.e., special arrangements are possible).

Pigs as lowly creatures deserve considerably attention, especially during hard times and crisis conditions. Currently, telecommunications companies are enjoying huge revenues and profits because of the lower income classes, particularly the C and D income classes who comprise three-fourths of the Philippine market. These companies have brought texting prices down so low that every janitor, clerk, driver, student, and vendor has a cell phone.

When goods and services are democratized to the level of the masses, companies can fill their coffers to the rafters. Malls are becoming bigger and bigger. Mass transportation is cheaper and faster, along with internet access. Catering to the lowly customer makes great business sense in this age of technology and innovation. Entrepreneurs should not dismiss the purchasing power of the many but it takes a lot efficiency and economies of scale to serve the mass market. Pigs are the extreme in customer metaphor. But the entrepreneur who pampers the pig wallows in wealth.

(Eduardo A. Morato, Jr. is on the faculty of the W. SyCip Graduate School of Business of the Asian Institute of Management. For comments and inquiries, you may contact him at: [email protected]. Published "Entrepreneur’s Helpline" columns can be viewed on the AIM website at http//:www.aim.edu.ph).