This often happens with my cat at home. Onga doesn't finish his food, but he meows at me to ask for more. Maybe he doesn't like what's left in the bowl because it's getting stale, or dry. The old-fashioned part in me says never waste food so I refuse to discard what is still edible. What I then do is I pick up the bowl, put it on the kitchen top where Onga can't see it, and use a spoon to gather the leftover food into a tidy little clump at the centre of the bowl. I present the bowl to him like a waiter bringing a new gourmet dish, and he happily finishes it as if I have served him a fresh plate of food. I chuckle inside - what a dumb cat! One day as I had just done this again and was smugly watching Onga eat, a realisation hit me. What if all this while he wasn't complaining about wanting more food? What if he was just directing his minion (me) to tidy up the food so that it was easier to eat? And I had thought I was outsmarting him. This reminded me of a lesson I learned from my boss many years ago - don't think your customers are stupid. We sometimes easily assume and draw conclusions, without thinking deeper about the behaviours of our customers. We think we can trick them, outsmart them, convince them to buy our products. If we don't look deeper into why they are buying and what needs they are seeking to fulfil, we will not improve. Yes, I must admit my cat is the master and I am the slave. He's the customer I am serving. If you find this post useful, please like, comment or share.
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