To a customer, good value is based on friendly, first-class service, timeliness and availability of company personnel, hassle-free exchange, trust and sincerity, being kept informed of what’s going on, and even fresh fruit in the arrangement room, or if you own the mom and pop grocery store, an extra ear of corn.

Customers reward the good work of employees by buying from you over and over again, buying more services and products, or telling others good things about your company. When customers buy, that money is used to fund the employees’ paychecks, vacations, coffee breaks, and more.

If customers decide they are not getting appropriate value for their money, they take their money elsewhere. You then have less money to pay employees or pay for anything else. As revenues continue downward, costs will be reduced. If employees are not generating an economic return greater than its cost to the company, non-generating employees will be released. It is a direct result of lost customers.

The customer ignored, treated rudely, or whose promises are broken, walks out the door of the funeral home, the restaurant, dry cleaners. The customer who hasn’t the time or patience to deal with an indifferent phone-answering person hangs up and calls someone else. The customer whose "flowers don’t bloom" is a customer at risk.

Businesses of all sizes, including funeral homes, close their doors for various reasons – incompetent management, poor employee training, ineffective marketing – and because customers shunned the business and the people working there and went to another company grateful for their business.

There is no major stationery supply store in my community but still an independent operator recently closed his doors. A month ago I needed supplies and arrived at the store 10 minutes before opening hours. The owner and an employee were inside sipping coffee. When they noticed me waiting outside, the owner held up 10 fingers and pointed to his watch. Pleased with their customer service effort, both of them disappeared behind the counter. I was a ready and willing-to-buy customer but left, taking my business elsewhere. I fired that owner and his employee that day. Several weeks later, these two people had no customers, no paychecks, and closed their doors for good.

Everybody is paid by the customer. Everyone needs to be grateful for customers. Pay raises, bonuses, promotions and worker benefits are paid by the customer. Great companies never forget that – not for an instant – that their existence depends on the customer.