Top 5 reasons why “The customer is Always Right” is wrong

[|Zach|]

http://positivesharing.com/2008/03/t...ight-is-wrong/

When the customer isn’t right - for your business

One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.

She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.

Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’

In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”

The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to:

1. Convince customers that they will get good service at this company
2. Convince employees to give customers good service

Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service.

Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong.

1: It makes employees unhappy

Gordon Bethune is a brash Texan (as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally) who is best known for turning Continental Airlines around “From Worst to First,” a story told in his book of the same title from 1998. He wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that the maxim “the customer is always right” didn’t hold sway at Continental.

In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side with his people. Here’s how he puts it:

When we run into customers that we can’t reel back in, our loyalty is with our employees. They have to put up with this stuff every day. Just because you buy a ticket does not give you the right to abuse our employees . . .

We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it’s a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on?

You can’t treat your employees like serfs. You have to value them . . . If they think that you won’t support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.

So Bethune trusts his people over unreasonable customers. What I like about this attitude is that it balances employees and customers, where the “always right” maxim squarely favors the customer - which is not a good idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes resentment among employees.

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.
2: It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage

Using the slogan “The customer is always right” abusive customers can demand just about anything - they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes the employees’ job that much harder, when trying to rein them in.

Also, it 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.
3: Some customers are bad for business

Most businesses think that “the more customers the better”. But some customers are quite simply bad for business.

Danish IT service provider ServiceGruppen proudly tell this story:

One of our service technicians arrived at a customer’s site for a maintenance task, and to his great shock was treated very rudely by the customer.

When he’d finished the task and returned to the office, he told management about his experience. They promptly cancelled the customer’s contract.

Just like Kelleher dismissed the irate lady who kept complaining (but somehow also kept flying on Southwest), ServiceGruppen fired a bad customer. Note that it was not even a matter of a financial calculation - not a question of whether either company would make or lose money on that customer in the long run. It was a simple matter of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right.
4: It results in worse customer service

Rosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency, took it even further. CEO Hal Rosenbluth wrote an excellent book about their approach called Put The Customer Second - Put your people first and watch’em kick butt.

Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because:

* They care more about other people, including customers
* They have more energy
* They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with
* They are more motivated

On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:

* Employees are not valued
* That treating employees fairly is not important
* That employees have no right to respect from customers
* That employees have to put up with everything from customers

When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible - the best customers can hope for is fake good service. You know the kind I mean: corteous on the surface only.
5: Some customers are just plain wrong

Herb Kelleher agrees, as this passage From Nuts! the excellent book about Southwest Airlines shows:

Herb Kelleher […] makes it clear that his employees come first — even if it means dismissing customers. But aren’t customers always right? “No, they are not,” Kelleher snaps. “And I think that’s one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss can possibly commit. The customer is sometimes wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say, ‘Fly somebody else. Don’t abuse our people.’”

If you still think that the customer is always right, read this story from Bethune’s book “From Worst to First”:

A Continental flight attendant once was offended by a passenger’s child wearing a hat with Nazi and KKK emblems on it. It was pretty offensive stuff, so the attendant went to the kid’s father and asked him to put away the hat. “No,” the guy said. “My kid can wear what he wants, and I don’t care who likes it.”

The flight attendant went into the cockpit and got the first officer, who explained to the passenger the FAA regulation that makes it a crime to interfere with the duties of a crew member. The hat was causing other passengers and the crew discomfort, and that interfered with the flight attendant’s duties. The guy better put away the hat.

He did, but he didn’t like it. He wrote many nasty letters. We made every effort to explain our policy and the federal air regulations, but he wasn’t hearing it. He even showed up in our executive suite to discuss the matter with me. I let him sit out there. I didn’t want to see him and I didn’t want to listen to him. He bought a ticket on our airplane, and that means we’ll take him where he wants to go. But if he’s going to be rude and offensive, he’s welcome to fly another airline.

The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that businesses are better of without them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over employees is a very bad idea, that results in worse customer service.

So put your people first. And watch them put the customers first.

[Demonpenz]

The customer isn't always right, but always a customer. Sometimes the customer is the one that needs to be fired. Your staff should be attending to the GOOD customers. Not the ones that are shit. ahh what retail and claims do for your love for people

[plbrdude]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

If she was 'constantly disappointed' then why did she 'frequently fly'?

reerun.

some people seem to have a need to complain. she is one of them.

[Halfcan]

Women are ALWAYS right and Men are ALWAYS wrong

Don't believe me??? Just ask ANY women and she will set you straight.

[listopencil]

I had the misfortune of dealing with people like this in the fast food industry. One time I overheard three customers ordering and they were obviously under the influence of alcohol. Not drunk but a little buzzed. I made eye contact with my register person and switched myself in to finish taking the order. I made sure to read back the order but they couldn't be bothered listening. I made a point of not completing the transaction until I had read it back. Sure enough they brought it back and complained, saying that they were missing stuff. They weren't missing anything they had payed for, and I told them I'd have to charge them if they wanted more food. They got loud and abusive. They cussed, tried to throw the register at me and tried to grab my tie. I threw them out.

[Thig Lyfe]

Customers blow.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Customers made me feel like this:

http://pigvomitgoesoff.ytmnd.com/

[BIG K]

This is why I loved my career of 12 years.

It did not matter how pissed off my 'customers' were with our poor treatment of them, they always returned to our 'place' of business frequently....... in handcuffs awaiting booking.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by BIG K

This is why I loved my career of 12 years.

It did not matter how pissed off my 'customers' were with our poor treatment of them, they always returned to our 'place' of business frequently....... in handcuffs awaiting booking.

Then we were your customers.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by BIG K

This is why I loved my career of 12 years.

It did not matter how pissed off my 'customers' were with our poor treatment of them, they always returned to our 'place' of business frequently....... in handcuffs awaiting booking.

[KcMizzou]

Good read.

I remember one time, soon after we took on a new truck line, I had a nasty run-in with a customer. First a little backround...

Almost all the parts catalogs are online now. You have to enter a model and serial number to even open the catalog. Basically, thats gives you one catalog specific to that truck. One choice for each part, so if you find the item they need... it's always right. (in theory)

Anyway, this guy comes in, says I need this, this and this. I say no problem, can I get the model and the last six of your VIN? Of course he didn't have it.

No big deal, I ask for the complete VIN, so I can figure out the model myself. He doesn't have that either.

Now he's getting pissed. Grumbling, cussing, just generally pissed off. I say, "Is there anyone you can call back at the shop? I'd love to help ya out, but that's just the way the system works these days. I could pull up a random VIN, but the parts would probably be wrong, and you'd have to come back."

Now he's practically foaming at the mouth. He grabs my phone, calls back to his shop and says, "Give the the serial number for truck number blahblahblah, this stupid motherfucker doesn't know how to look up parts."

I reached across the counter, took the phone out of his hand, and hung it up. Told him, "You're done. You're not getting anything from me. It's time for you to leave." He looks over to a coworker and tries to get help from him... and the guy says, "I saw the whole thing. It's time for you to leave."

I called my boss at home. (At that point, I worked nights) Told him my side of the story, because I wanted to get to him first...lol I asked, "Is so-and-so a big account?" He said yeah, but it was a father and son operation, and they're both pricks. He also said, "It's not good, but there's a limit to what you have to put up with."

Oddly enough, the guy never called to complain. (probably because he knew he was out of line) They're still customers, too. As far as I know the guy hasn't been a problem since, though. Of course, if he wanted to take his business elsewhere, he'd have to look a state or two further away.

[KcMizzou]

Originally Posted by Bwana

Good read and exactly how I conduct business. The majority of the time, you can work with customers and work problems out, but in a few cases, you get some dickweek that is not only unreasonable, but wastes a lot of compay time. In those few instances, it's best just to cut your ties and tell that person so go rub some salt on their ass and hit the road.

Amen. There are certain customers (not many, but they're there) who end up costing you more money than they bring in to your business.

[BIG K]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Hillarious!

We actually had a form "How are we doing?" Exiting customers were encouraged not to fill it out........You know, the whole, "You can fill this out but I must warn you, all the supervisors must read it before you leave so that we can adress your concerns. Could take several hours you know.."

What can I say? It's still the wild west here....

Fun times.....

[KcMizzou]

Originally Posted by BIG K

Hillarious!

We actually had a form "How are we doing?" Exiting customers were encouraged not to fill it out........You know, the whole, "You can fill this out but I must warn you, all the supervisors must read it before you leave so that we can adress your concerns. Could take several hours you know.."

What can I say? It's still the wild west here....

Fun times.....

Dude...

So.. say they actually were mistreated. I've read stories about people who have legitimate complaints about such things...

Rather than try and strong-arm them, why not just make sure you were in the right, and tell your side of the story?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no cop hater... that just seems shady. And IMO law enforcement employees, more than any other group of people, should not engage in such tactics.

[JAllen69]

Could not agree more with the post. Some people are actually better off being told to go elsewhere. They'll take advantage of their opportunity to act like a pig if given a chance. My father in law has run his insurance business for nearly 35 years, and he's never been afraid to tell a pain in the *$% to take a hike if need be. Unfortunately for me, I teach at a high school, so you can't really tell a student to go to hell. Good thing I'm pretty patient.

[KcMizzou]

Originally Posted by JAllen69

Could not agree more with the post. Some people are actually better off being told to go elsewhere. They'll take advantage of their opportunity to act like a pig if given a chance. My father in law has run his insurance business for nearly 35 years, and he's never been afraid to tell a pain in the *$% to take a hike if need be. Unfortunately for me, I teach at a high school, so you can't really tell a student to go to hell. Good thing I'm pretty patient.

Good Lord. You'd have to be.

Welcome to the Planet.