One of the worst things we can do is turn them into enemies. Changing the Culture We need, in short, to alter the way we think about our customers. An unspoken underlying assumption of Total Quality Management is a reverence for people. It means treating them that way. Most people respond to trust with trust, once they get past the suspicious wariness that our normal way of managing has bred in them.
Most people react to trust by behaving in honest and competent ways.
We would do well to shape our behavior for the 97 percent. What I am talking about here is transforming the organizational culture so that in all we do, the customer is foremost in our minds. That means that our continuous improvement efforts are aimed at quality as defined by our customers, not saving money or becoming more efficient. If we stress quality, cost and efficiency take care of themselves. We must assume that they are honest and competent people whose requirements are valid.