Customer, customer, customer…..

Most authors hate to use a word repeatedly in a sentence, or a page. Few editors allow it.

But till Sadagopan pointed it out in his Amazon review of the book, SAP Nation, I did not realize the editors and I have committed a cardinal sin of writing.

I now see the word “customer” appears 16 times in the Table of Contents, and 60 times before you even get to Chapter 1.

The book cover says

“This book brings out loudly the voice of SAP customers as they cope with this runaway economy. Twenty-five case studies showcase a spectrum of strategies.”

And my dedication in front of the book says

“This book is dedicated to customers — the underappreciated stakeholders in the IT industry”

Actually, in an initial draft, I had a quote (mis) attributed to Gandhi

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

With that, I am fine with having sinned the linguistic Gods.