I really appreciate where you are coming from. I think your approach to forging real partnerships is excellent. The funny thing is that I tend to put customer relationships ahead of partner relationships, ie if I am a customer of yours I have an even higher expectation from our relationship and the experience you are creating.

Steve

It reminds me of something that I wrote a couple years back:
http://www.baileyworkplay.com/2006/12/sit-on-the-same-side-of-the-table/

Our relationships with customers can be much greater than the sum of the transaction…but only if we take that next step. Good stuff, Michelle! And keep up all the great, soulful work you do…our world is a better place for it.

It seems as if we are coming at a crossroads. We are fighting against people who see work merely as a matter of dollars and cents. That’s a sad life. We get those dollars and cents from people, and if we are fighting to suck those people dry, they eventually won’t want to do business with us again. There is nothing wrong with profit, but not if it comes with the exploitation of either our workers or our customers.

Customers are our partners. We are giving them a service and they are giving us money in return. It’s an exchange. So often it is viewed as an adversarial relationship which strikes me as very unnecessary.

It’s tiring, but I’m hoping that we can create more sustainable business models together.