When managing a business, generating profits and pleasing investors is often a top priority. But two of the world’s richest men—Jeff Bezos, the founder of e-commerce giant Amazon.com and investing guru Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway—say these factors pale in comparison to the importance of customer satisfaction.

Though it may sound cliché, a business will cease without loyal customers. High stock prices and big profits makes sense to business insiders, but customers are more concerned about a company’s reputation and its ability to address concerns and adapt to changing preferences, Yahoo reports.

“The core of the company is customer-obsession as opposed to competitor-obsession,” Bezos says. “Customers are always dissatisfied and they always want more. So they pull you along. If you’re trying to serve them, they pull you along.” As for Buffett, he says businesses are to delight their customers, not merely satisfy them.

"Any business that has delighted customers has a sales force out there that you don’t have to pay. You don’t see them, but they are talking to people all the time,” Buffett said. [Yahoo]