How many of you have heard the following?
Rule #1: The customer is always right. Rule #2: If the customer is ever wrong, reread Rule #1!
For many businesses, these are two bedrock values they live by. The customer is always right and, the customer can do no wrong. What about you and your organization? Do you preach to your staff that the customer is always right?
I used to, but not anymore. I’ve come to realize training your employees the customer is always right does more harm than it does good. Here are five reasons why I believe “the customer is always right” is wrong.
Makes your employees unhappy – Some customers are just down right mean and abrasive. They think nothing of ripping into your employees to get their way. If you believe they are always right, then you will end up siding with the abrasive customer over your own employees. Not a good, long term situation. Where should your loyalty lie? If you’ve done a good job of hiring and training your staff, you should always trust them over the unruly customer.
Gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage – Thing about it. If they’re always right, they can demand just about anything and expect to get it. Will they abuse this? Absolutely! Plus, it gives them an advantage over the nice customers who really enjoy what you have to offer. Focus on those good customers and keep them coming back.
Some customers are bad for business – The story is told of a woman who used to fly Southwest Airlines and every time she did, would write a complaint letter. It was obvious she didn’t like anything about Southwest and finally the customer relations folks didn’t know what else to do so they bumped her last letter up to Herb Kelleher, company founder and CEO. Within 60 seconds he fired back the following response: “Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb”. Herb understood this customer was not good for Southwest. If he tried to satisfy her, he would lose sight of all the positive attributes that make Southwest so successful. He understood that sometimes you have to fire the customer. Don’t lose sleep over the customers you can’t please. Instead, cut them loose and take great care of those who love what you’re doing.
Can result in worse customer service – Siding with an abrasive customer over your employees shows them they’re not valued and treating them fairly is not important to you. It also shows them they have no right to respect and have to put up with everything that customer feels like dishing out. If your employees don’t feel valued and trusted by you, how do you think they’re going treat your customers? Put your staff first and they’ll put your guests first. They need to know you’ve got their back when they start getting “attacked” by the unruly guest.
Some customers are just plain wrong and everyone knows it – If everyone, including you, knows that customer is wrong, why try to make everyone think they’re right? You’re only fooling yourself and hurting your business.
At the end of the day, the customer may not always be right…but they will always be the customer. You just need to decide which customers you want to keep. Firing the abrasive and unruly customers will give you more time and resources to focus on the guests who truly deserve your attention and who, in turn, will be loyal to you.
Thank you for your insight. I used to own a service business in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area.
If I made a mistake or erred toward the customer, the customer was right. However, I would respond with a smile on my face when I had a customer that was being unreasonable. Sometimes I would hear “isn´t the customer always right?” To which I would respond: “Yes he is, but you are not my customer… ”
So, rule number 1 could be correct, as long as rule number 2 is something to the effect that not everyone is my customer…
Interesting perspective Joel. Thanks for the comment.
Byron, I love this post! Finally- someone with the courage to say it. I will say this is crucial with cancellation policies in an service organization. Something I noticed in ministry with group leaders is that we have an opportunity to take service a step further and teach principles of accountability, which can be passed on again by group leaders to their members or students. I think it’s as wrong to expect a full refund of a group cancellation the week before as it is to return used jeans to a store that doesn’t carry that brand (whether they accommodate that or not). I think when we outline what we can do to accommodate needs and outline accountability from the start, it aligns the expectations of both sides, motivates group leaders, and ultimately benefits both sides!
Thanks Dana. As you well know, educating group leaders on stewardship and accountability, when it comes to cancellation policies, continues to be a challenge. The tendency is for the group leader to overestimate their projected attendance. Our responsibility is almost to help protect them from themselves by challenging them to reduce their numbers. Internally this is a challenge if too much of our focus is on projected attendance rather than realistic numbers. Our goal is try and deal with all of that on the front end to help ensure happy group leaders after their event.
I was excited to see “At the end of the day, the customer may not always be right…but they will always be the customer.” in your last paragraph. That has been, verbatim, exactly what my personal outlook towards customer service has been for a while now.
I’m lucky to work in a company where we aren’t required to be used by our customers when they get angry. Dave Ramsey has also said that he has basically empowered his employees to hang-up on or walk away from people that call or stop by his office who are basically being jerks to them.
There’s no point in dealing with a rude and angry customer in that moment because you will never be able to satisfy them (even if they are right about the situation) until they’re behaving rationally. Just politely tell them to come back when they’re ready to talk about the issue instead of yelling about it.
Bryon, I really enjoyed your post. I have learned over the years to be a good customer and to always be polite when dealing with customer service. I guess being yelled at as many times as I have had over the years about things not in my control taught me to be a better customer.
Would you mind if I referenced this post in a blog post I am writing?
Chris, thanks for the comments. You definitely get it. We try to train our staff on how to deal with angry/difficult customers by diffusing the situation. As you pointed out, it’s very difficult to help someone who’s angry and acting irrationately. Before we can try to solve their problem, we have to be able to bring them back to a reasonable state of mind. Here’s a link to recent post on dealing with an angry guest. Let me know what you think.
Rebecca, I appreciate your comment. Thirty years in hospitality has definitely taught me to be a better customer as well. As for referencing the post in your blog, I would be honored. Feel free to also link to the post if that would be helpful. Would you mind letting me know when it’s posted. Definitely would enjoy reading it.
Byron, I will definitely let you know! I hope to have it up this week!
Thanks Rebecca. Look forward to reading it.
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Loved it, was a really good response to the letter that went to the CEO. The customer is never right but its nice to make them feel like they are.
Thanks for the comment Daniel. I agree. That was an excellent response from Herb. However I would not go so far as to say the customer is never right. I can think of several occasions where I was wrong and the customer was right. Bottom line is they may not always be right, but they are always the customer.