Are you projecting confidence in your firm’s product or service? If you are not eating your own dog food, then customers may ask why they should trust you above the competition.
The dog is man’s best friend and many dog owners have asked why you would give food to your dog that you would not eat yourself. This boomerangs back to the very human idea that if a person is willing to offer something to someone else, then it had better be good enough for them, too.
This past weekend, I walked into a restaurant, took my seat, and began looking at the menu. When my server came to take my order, I asked her opinion between two options that I was split on. Her response stunned me: “I wouldn’t eat here.”
Her unconscious choice of words had a big impact on my next move…we laughed about it, I thanked her, and I walked out. If the food isn’t good enough for a server who works there and knows the back-room processes, then why would it be good enough for her to recommend a meal to a perfect stranger? As I walked out, I thought of the concept of eating your own dog food.
In business, you send signals to your potential customers whether intentionally (e.g., advertising, public relations) or unintentionally (e.g., scandals, not using your own products). Think about the message that would be sent if we were to see Apple CEO Tim Cook routinely using a Microsoft Surface device. Without words, he would be telling us that while he has a product line that is opposite of Surface, he prefers his rival’s product. If he prefers his rival’s product to his own, then there is little reason for us to do otherwise.
If you have a product or service that you are marketing to the public, then you want to demonstrate that there is no product better than yours in your market. This is true whether you run a local restaurant or an international computing firm. Eat your own dog food!
I have made a point to keep my posts simplified and non-technical so that the widest audience (ie., students and those with zero subject background) will be able to benefit from them.
Christopher Padilla 
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