So last week I posted about how to treat customers, now I want to make a point or two aimed at developers, coders, and the like. In case you didn't realize it, everyone, everywhere is your customer. Let me explain with a retail example.
Let's say a company makes a widget, they then distribute that widget through wholesale distributors, who then sell the widgets to stores who then sell to customers. When a customer buys something and it's broken, they take it back to the store. The store then tells the distributor, who in most cases will exchange it and send the bad one back to the manufacturer. Guess what, that means that every link in that chain is, directly or indirectly, a customer of the manufacturer.
Well for developers it's even worse. Everyone in your own company is your customer. The salesmen showing off your product can't have it break or fail. Your manager is basically your distributor, and other departments count on your code working for their livelihood as well. Then the clients you're selling your program too are obviously your customers, but anyone logging into that software, like your client's clients, are also your clients indirectly.
You, as a developer, need to remember to try your best to consider your code from the perspective of every one of those link in the chain. Your job, like anyone else, is to make your customers happy (if possible) and functional, so don't forget to look down that chain every now and then, if you can ask how they like it, but especially remember to not shrug them off because they're approval is even more relevant than your manager's.
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