Clues to Suits and Geeks

Heh. I liked Arnold's "Clues to Geeks" where he responds to the recent "Clues to Suits". Not that he disagrees with "clues to suits", but there is education to be done on both sides.

I have some clues from customers that I hope both suits and geeks might find useful:
(1) We are not you. We don't care about what you care about, whether it be fancy new technology that we can't use, or fancy new services that a) don't make our lives easier and b) cost too much to be worth our while.
(2) We have lives and families. We don't have time to learn your pointlessly complicated systems.
(3) We are not stupid. See above. But we're better at telling you what we like and need with our actions than with our words.
(4) We have options. These include using the other guys stuff, or sticking to the stuff we have now which works pretty well, thank you very much.
(5) We pay your salaries. 'Nuff said.

An old buddy from Creative Good sent me this link on EasyEverything where they listen to customers with a vengeance. A great customer experience does not make a business all by itself, but ignore them, or disdain them, at your peril.