Operating Tenant #1 Customer Obsessed
Long term growth depends on this one universal tenant.
Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes
TLDR: Being customer obsessed is the most important tenant in operations of any true business. At PushPress, we've made it our first operating tenet because serving our customers magically is literally the reason we exist. This mindset doesn't just build trust and loyalty - it creates a sustainable business advantage that is shockingly not easy to replicate.
At PushPress, we recently ditched our Core Values in favor of Operating Tenants because we needed principles that would guide real actions, not just feel-good statements. As we've grown from scrappy startup to serving hundreds of gyms, we needed a framework that would help us execute better.
The first and most important tenet? Customer Obsession.
What "Customer Obsessed" Actually Means
Here's how we define it at PushPress:
"Our success is aligned with our customer's success. PERIOD. We listen, adapt, and solve problems like their businesses depend on us — because they do. We relentlessly earn and expand trust, even if it means saying 'no' or 'not now'."
Customer obsession means the customer is the center of the decisions that must be made — not the board, not the investors, not the CEO, nor anyone else.
Customer obsession means understanding what drives your success is directly tied to what drives your customers' success.
Magic truly happens when customers needs are aligned with the company’s growth and goals - not the other way around. And surprisingly, most businesses do not seem to understand this.
The Result: Sustainable Growth and Trust
The output of this executed correctly? True sustainable growth and trust.
And when you combine customer trust and alignment of customer needs, you actually create a growth flywheel that becomes self-propelling. (If you wonder how PushPress has grown - it’s on the back of this flywheel)
Trust breed goodwill. Trust breeds grace. Trust breeds loyalty. Trust is the foundation of everything - and rightfully so. It cannot be bought, begged or borrowed.
Trust must be earned, one client at a time.
Customer Obsession: You Can Smell It a Mile Away
(either its a lovely scent, or it’s rank - but either way the smell is obvious)
Think about the worst companies you’ve dealt with—it’s easy to spot the lack of customer obsession.
Now, think of the best ones. The difference is obvious.
Any company can claim to be “customer first,” but words don’t mean much when they’re forced to make a tough decision. That’s when the rubber meets the road.
IMO, I don’t have time to work with companies that are not obsessed about me - the customer. In short order (or already) they will have abandoned my needs as a customer.
Why This Matters For Your Gym
Think about your most successful members. You know, the ones who:
Show up consistently
Follow your nutrition guidance
Refer friends without being asked
Stick around for years
Those members, in one way or another, have developed a deep seeded trust for you, your coaches, and your business.
Of every operating tenant we’ve creating, this is by far the easiest for any gym owner to attach to. In the boutique fitness world, it’s already the primary reason why gyms open: we are obsessed about our clients.
The Hard Truth
Here's where I need to be blunt: most gym owners think they're customer obsessed, but I see a lot of room for improvement.
If you're making business decisions based primarily on:
I see owners cutting corners on things they don’t find fun.
I see gyms focusing on their 10 best clients and ignoring their “average” ones.
I hear people say out loud “don’t ask your members for feedback”.
I feel a general customer obsession over fitness training, I see lots of gaps about obsessing over the customer in all other ways
I see plenty of owners who focus more on short term gains over long term wins. (band aids fixing lacerations)
The Balance
The obvious balance to this is: you cannot be everything to everyone. If you try, you will be nothing to no one.
So being intentional about who your perfect client is must come first.
And - you can have more than one perfect customer, you just have to be brutally honest with yourself if you really do.
Anything that falls outside of that box needs to be deprioritized immediately to give you the space to obsess over the needs and desires of those perfect customers.
How To Become More Customer Obsessed
Want to make this tenet work in your gym? Start here:
Define those Perfect Customers. Become mentally ok losing any customer who falls outside of that definition.
Audit Your Decisions: Look at the last 5 major business decisions you made. How many were primarily driven by member success?
Talk Less, Listen More: In your next 10 member interactions, try asking an open-ended question about their needs and just listen. Find patterns.
Measure What Matters: Are you tracking metrics that reflect member success or just business convenience?
Solve Real Problems: What's the biggest obstacle your members face? Attack that problem like your business depends on it.
The PushPress Promise
At PushPress, customer obsession is our greatest strength. It’s something our team understands and resonates with the most. As with most superpowers, it also is our biggest challenge.
I once thought being customer obsessed meant fixing every client’s pain immediately. That led to an endless roadmap with a million priorities and none completed.
This is the guaranteed fate of the customer empathetic with enough customers. How many times has a software company told you they’d do something next quarter and they didn’t. It’s not because they don’t care it’s because they actually care too much.
Telling customers “no” or “not now” to things they feel they need often is the worst feeling in the world, but to be truly customer obsessed, I’ve learned, you must develop that muscle.
Instead, we will promise to:
Listen intently to customer pain and solve for the greatest impact.
Say "no" when a request doesn’t serve the majority.
Say “not now” if we feel the request is sound, but cannot dislodge our current or near term priorities.
Invest in the continued improvement and development of our platform for our clients.
Invest in the development and skills of the teams working for our clients.
Invest in education for our clients to become better operators.
Bottom line: We succeed when you succeed. That’s what customer obsession means to us, and we will continue to put our energy, mindset, and resources in those directions.
And it's why our first operating tenet is the foundation for everything else we do.
Next in this series: "Big Picture Thinking" - Why long term thinking is critical to build a long term business.