Is the Customer Always Right?

The old adage “the customer is always right” has been implemented into many business environments since the early 1900’s. The phrase implies that no matter what your customers say, demand, or even behave is tolerable by your company’s standards. The underlying question this ideology presents is by putting the customer first does that lead to better customer service or is it even good for business? The following are five examples of why the customer is not always right and in some cases the customer is even wrong.

Everyone does not know what is best for your company. People innately look out for their own best interests. This mentality leads them to believe that you should do whatever it is they want you to do. Companies that cave into each and every customer’s demand eventually find themselves stressed at keeping the customer happy. The more you give a customer; the more they feel they can get from you. Altering customary business practices for certain clients provides an unfair advantage to those customers that are the most demanding and abusive. Some customers you will never be able to satisfy. The best way to succeed at providing the best customer service is to keep your nice clients happy and invite the difficult and abusive clients to succeed elsewhere.

Walking away from bad deals is much harder for some companies to accomplish. More customers are not always better for business. Meeting each customer’s request can place a significant burden on your financial budget. Taking on a very large client may lead you to have to expand infrastructure, inventory, and even hire additional employees. If that customer was ever to not require your services and leave, you are stuck with the anticipated costs of servicing the client. Although turning down future revenue may be difficult, companies often don’t realize the hidden costs of acquiring that revenue. Walking away from bad deals is not always a financial decision. Some clients just cause too much disruption to your current service levels. Taking on one client can easily cause a decrease to the service levels provided to your current customer base. What you may think is a positive expansion, could lead to loyal long term customers to leave due to decreased overall customer service to the smaller clients.

A company that always sides with the customer tends to deal with unhappy employees. Employees are working for you everyday forming a bond with the company, while customers may come and go as they please. Creating a business environment where employees always feel subordinate to the customer leads to poor attitude where employees don’t care about the job. Employees that don’t feel valued by their company or respected by the customers have no reason to provide quality customer service. Without employees that care and have a positive attitude about their job, your company will eventually lose your customer base. Not that all employees can provide excellent customer service, but explaining poor service by saying the customer is always right is counter-productive and hides the true problem at hand. Hiding bad service by telling customers they are right doesn’t solve future complaints. Respect and support your employees and in turn they will respect and satisfy your customers. If you can fire bad employees, you can “fire” bad customers as well. Some customers just don’t fit your business model. For instance, companies that specialize in a certain industry may not wish to venture outside of that market. Whereas a company that services a general client base may not be able to successfully handle all the demands of a specialized client. Maybe refer the clients you can not handle or wish not to take to a friendly competitor. You never know they may respond by referring a client they don’t want that could be beneficial to your business. Each company needs to find its preferred level of diversification. You don’t want to service just one client in case they no longer require service; on the other hand, servicing too many different types of clients create the possibly of mistakes and not fully understanding those clients’ needs.

The ideology “the customer is always right” generally leads to bad customer service. Having employees know that the customer is always right develops the attitude of providing a fake quality of service to satisfy customers. Putting your employees first lets them know you will support them when they encounter difficult clients. Finally, it is important to note that you can’t satisfy all customers. Sometimes it is best to just walk away from a client and keep the bad clients from affecting other loyal customers.