Is the Customer Always Right?

The phrase “The customer is always right” is attributed (among others) to Harry Gordon Selfridge, a retail magnate in the US and UK.

For many years the expression was used to convey a sense of authentic attention to customers’ needs. Like many sayings, the idea is simple and easy to understand. There’s no doubting the sentiment or reasoning behind it. And it’s short enough to make it memorable.

But should it still be used as the measuring stick for good customer service?

Why give a self-righteous customer with a bad attitude a weapon like this to use against any customer service employee he thinks should experience his wrath?

It doesn’t create a pleasant working environment for customer assistants, when they are allowed to be undermined by an irrefutable rule that, in essence, says “The customer service rep is always wrong.”

Can you imagine UN diplomats tolerating their diplomatic powers reduced to a “customer is always right” straightjacket? Businesses should empower their employees to take a proactive role in complaint resolution rather than capitulate to the complaints of petulant people with buyer’s remorse.

Customers who refuse to read the terms & conditions, operating instructions, hazard warnings or other important details of a product -- these kinds of customers are bad for business.

They waste your company’s time demanding resolutions to problems that very often they caused in the first place. These difficult customers will complain about products they haven’t taken the time to understand – or ignored the training you provided -- making the cost of providing them the customer service they demand a financial liability to your business.

But there’s more to this than just a negative financial impact on your business.

These kinds of customers can take a toll on your employees’ sense of well-being. Employees who feel devalued will not be good ambassadors of your brand.

Complaining customers could perceive the attitude of a worn down, disgruntled employee as actually reinforcing their view of your company, and are likely to mirror that employee's attitude, becoming more aggravated as the encounter goes on.

Employees, understandably grow tired of feeling undervalued and having to passively accept the ire of irrational customers who are “always right.” The result? You get less than sincere, worse customer service.

The fact is this: some customers are just wrong.

Herb Kelleher, in the book “Nuts!” about Southwest Airlines, noted that the “customer is sometimes wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and suggest they ‘Fly somebody else. Don’t abuse our people.’”

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The “customer is always right” sounds nice. But it’s just not true. The customer is sometimes wrong. Some customers are bad for your business.

Know your ideal customer and provide them excellent customer care. And to the others? Suggest they take their business elsewhere – that they “fly somebody else.”

Resources

Serving Difficult Customers with Care
“Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success”

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