The Customer Is Most Definitely Not Always Right

Anybody who has ever worked retail or a customer service job has heard more than enough times, “the customer is always right.” And while I comprehend the philosophical concept, I challenge it as we all know it’s decidedly wrong. We fully remember the horror story of the overly demanding customer who asks for something they are not entitled to receive. Or they had broken the item they are now trying to return, claiming it was like that in the sealed box when they purchased it. Not only are those types of experiences frustrating, it completely goes against our psyche to accept from someone a line of b.s. that we know is positively wrong. And yet, under our breath, we force a smile, issue the refund, or the replacement while our blood pressure increases, and we feel the stress of having to go against how we authentically feel.

So I have a simple solution that I’d love to see corporate America, no, the entire world adopt. Let’s stop saying, thinking, and training, “the customer is always right,” and let’s spin that a bit as I am in marketing, and let’s adopt this phrase, “the customer has the right to be satisfied.” And sure it’s a simple repositioning of our thought process, but here’s what it allows the employee, as the customer service rep, to do. It enables them to save face because if we believe the customer is always right, guess what, that means the employee…