It was Mahatma Gandhi who, during a speech in South Africa, in 1890 said:

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependant on us, we are dependant on him. He is not an interruption of our work, he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider of 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 the opportunity to do so."