Reply #146: I'm sorry... The customer is NOT always right.

[Glassunion]

In fact, they are wrong quite a bit. The only difference is that there is what I call the "Great Lie" that must be perpetuated between customers and service employees. This is where the customer knows that they are wrong and the employee also knows that they are wrong. However the employee has to pretend that the customer is right, and work quite diligently to quell the customers fake pout-rage, and make them feel that they got something over on the business to satisfy them so they will come back. It is a delicate balance. The instant it costs me more(in money or my employees faith in me) to try and keep the customer I will side with my employees.

Let me give you some real scenarios about customers that my wife or I have had, and you tell me if the customers were right or wrong.

- Wife unlocks a dressing room for a customer, she checks it to insure that there is no merchandise inside and leave the door open for the customer. 5 minutes later the customer buys some of what they tried on and left the rest on the rolling hanger for her to put back on the sales floor. So far so good. She returns to the dressing room to check for product and insure it is locked back up, however she now has to clean the dressing room as it was used as a bathroom(if you know what I mean). Was that particular customer right when they took a shit in a dressing room? Would you believe me when I tell you that it happens at least once a week in my wife's department store where there are public accessible bathrooms within 20 feet of the dressing rooms? There are people who get a kick out of doing this to their servants.

- Customer comes in and orders a sandwich, pays for it and leaves. Comes back 5 minutes later to let employee know that they screwed up. Employee apologizes, makes a new sandwich AND refunds the customer their money as that is our policy. Customer however still pout-raged begins to berate the employee using such phrases as "fucking stupid bitch" and "retarded c-word". Was this customer right? Again, there are people who get a kick out of doing this to their servants. Was I wrong for firing the customer?

- Group of 12 come into our steak house without reservations on a Friday night. Are they "right" to demand their money back on their check because it took an hour and a half to seat them and another 25 minutes for their entrees to get to the table after ordering? Even though they were warned that it would take an hour and a half to seat that many. Is 25 minutes too long to wait for 9 steaks, 2 seafood dishes and a chicken dish? Were they also right to not tip the waiter at all on a bill for over $500? Were they right to demand their money back on food that they all ate? There are people who do work quite hard to get something for nothing.

- Is the customer right when they demand to be served alcohol when they cannot produce ID? Personally, I don't give two shits that you have a Harvard Law degree with a minor in applied sciences. If you don't look old enough and you cannot show me ID, you don't drink. Period.

- I have never minded customers asking for items that we did not have on our menu. We had extremely talented chefs in our kitchen, however is the customer right when they demand something that is beyond our abilities? Are they right to be pout-raged when a steak house cannot make sushi? Sure we have fish on the menu, but that does not mean we can make sushi. Is that customer right in demanding that they not pay for their meal because they could not get what they wanted? In all honesty if there was a sushi joint in the area I would have run to get her some, but there was not.

- How about the constant complainer? If every time you visit our establishment, you have to write the corporate office telling them how bad the experience is and that the entire staff should be fired perhaps your expectations are too high. Thankfully my wife's company fired the customer.

The phrase that the customer is ALWAYS right, I think should be retired. The problem is that this can build animosity between your employees and your customers. If your employees feel that you will not support them and force them to appease abrasive and abusive customers, you actually lower customer service by killing the morale of your employees.

When I run into the problem of customers that I cannot get back or do anything with, my loyalty is with my employees. My employees have to deal with this crap every single day. No matter what there will always be the unreasonable, demanding ass hole customers. When it’s a choice between supporting my employees, who work with me every single day and make my product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free meal because my employee had the audacity to ask the 16 year old at his table for ID when she ordered her Bikini-tini, whose side should I be on? My employees make my business the success it is. If I have to lose 1 out of maybe 200 customers to keep my employees happy and let them know that I have their back. So be it. My employees are not serfs that have to be "programmed" that the customer is ALWAYS right. I have to value my employees... If they think that I won’t support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.

Of course there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service. But trying to solve this by declaring the customer "always right" is counter-productive.

Using the slogan "The customer is always right", an abusive customer can demand just about anything. Using this logic they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes my employees' job that much harder, when trying to make them happy. Also, this means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back. Think about it. How much time and resources go into an abusive, irate and unreasonable customer compared to a happy customer? I want my people giving everyone top notch service.

Sure there is a cost to replacing a lost customer here and there. But it is far more expensive to recruit, replace and train an employee then to keep one happy. Maybe I'm just fucking crazy, but I have a theory... I put my people first. I train them, empower them to make their own decisions with our customers and simply watch them put our customers first. Been working for years quite successfully. I have near zero turnover and hundreds of happy customers.