inverse Customers Inverse customers are the people and companies that most people think of as our suppliers, people to whom we are customers. So why should we apply the same customer service standards to these people as we apply to those who pay us money for our products? First, we want to know that they will have loyalty to us, that they will treat us well and respect our business. Take, for instance, a situation in which we need something, and we genuinely need it with urgency. If we were ujust any customer\" to our suppliers, we'd get the product if and when they were ready to give it to us. On the other hand, if we've spent time and energy fostering a relationship with our supplier and we've treated them the way that we treat our highlyvalued incoming customers, they'll most likely pn'on'tize us. They may even give us a genuine estimate of the product's delivery time, rather than a pluckedoutofthe-air ballpark figure