I always tell our employees to be afraid, to wake up every day full of fear. Not from our competitors, but from our customers or guests as we treat them. Our customers have made our company what it is today, our relationship is with them, and it is with them that we have a huge obligation. They are only loyal to us – until such time as another company offers a better service.

Working from the customer's needs forces us to acquire new skills and exercise new muscles, even if those first steps are uncomfortable and embarrassing.

At Living we want happy customers.

The greatest desire at Living is to see our customers happy, and as CEO I want to see everyone in the company obsessed with customers or guests, how we treat them and do everything we can to make them feel like our guests and not just our customers.

“Obsession” is a description of a focus far beyond “normal” and therefore the word “obsessed” often has a negative connotation in everyday vocabulary. It means going beyond the limits, reaching an extreme.

But it is precisely to this extent that we want everyone within the company to be concerned about the needs of our customers.

Of all the leadership principles at Living, the most important is customer/guest obsession. The first mission of a leader at Living is to be guest obsessed and all employees are expected to be leaders, regardless of their role or position.

Living's Leadership Principle – Customer/Guest Obsession

The starting point for leaders is the customer. They work with determination to earn and maintain your trust. Leaders are aware of the competition, but the obsession is with Customers/Guests.

This leadership principle (customer obsession) works hand in hand with the growth principle, because it is impossible to make any business grow without having customers.

With an emphasis on customers, Living's employees are able to focus on solutions, not problems. We want to always be ahead, we want to solve problems before they appear.

What do customers really want?

Many misguided companies focus more on products and services than on customers. By designing and improving products, they improve existing functionality. Then they spend time and money promoting new features. When customers don't buy, executives at these companies may think the message is the problem. Or that customers don't understand the value that that product or service has.

In many cases, the problem is not in the message or in the lack of understanding on the part of the customers, but in the fact that the company only considered what the customer wanted or needed later. Companies like this are obsessed not with customers, but with their own products or services.

Here are the questions Living always asks:

• Who is our customer?

• What is the customer's problem or opportunity?

• What is the main benefit to the customer?

• How to know what the customer needs?

• How is the customer experience?

Never stop asking questions

Another principle that we use at Living and that embodies everything we do is to always ask ourselves:

What prevents our customers from shopping with us?

Beyond the expected

The drive to make customers say “wow” keeps the pace of innovation fast.

It's not just about serving the customer. Obsession means always being above average – it's the kind of extremism that makes us happy. It's inventing for the customer's benefit, improving the shopping experience, making customers say “wow” because they received more than they expected.

And this is what I mean by obsession.