"The Customer Is Always Right." -- WRONG!

During my times with my previous jobs, I've always been told this one big rule...

"The customer is always right."

In fact, I've even had a few bosses with this sign...

1. The customer is always right.
2. If the customer is wrong, go back to rule #1.

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I've always thought that this was a stupid rule and as a supervisor myself, I never strongly enforced that rule with my employees.

Finally, someone made a good comment regarding this...

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

I still believe no matter.. Customer is right and make me become broke. yay.

I have to agree with the guy's post. There are customers out there that will lie and cheat to get free merchandise, food, and in the blog - free tickets to Paris.

Because of this, the price of everything goes UP and customer service continue to go DOWN as now they make it even harder for the honest folks to do something as simple as returning an item to the store.


If everyone were nice and honest (Im referring to the customers here) then employees would be more than just curteous on the outside, they would be more willing to make things right if you have legitimate case of poor service.

If you notice that NICE longtime customers are much more liked by the company and give the company more money. If your'e a MEAN customer then the employees will do anything they can to avoid you and may even 'ignore' you when you request help in the future.

When youre nice the company will stick its neck out for you. When your'e mean they do anything they can to keep from serving you. Makes perfect buisness sense.

Dixie said:

I have to agree with the guy's post. There are customers out there that will lie and cheat to get free merchandise, food, and in the blog - free tickets to Paris.

Because of this, the price of everything goes UP and customer service continue to go DOWN as now they make it even harder for the honest folks to do something as simple as returning an item to the store.


If everyone were nice and honest (Im referring to the customers here) then employees would be more than just curteous on the outside, they would be more willing to make things right if you have legitimate case of poor service.

If you notice that NICE longtime customers are much more liked by the company and give the company more money. If your'e a MEAN customer then the employees will do anything they can to avoid you and may even 'ignore' you when you request help in the future.

When youre nice the company will stick its neck out for you. When your'e mean they do anything they can to keep from serving you. Makes perfect buisness sense.

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Exactly.

Everything should be two-way. Communication is important. While it's important to meet the needs and demands of customers, there are also employees to consider.

I've had customers actually say, "Hey, isn't the customers always right?" Well, I would calmly tell them... "It depends." If they get all pissed off and storm out of the store, then that's fine with me... cuz having a customer like that certainly hurts other customers. So, I would rather lose 1 horrible mean customer just so that 10 happy customers are comfortable with coming to the store.

also if your a good customer and go to that business often for years. they can give you nice discounts or deals for their services. I know a few people who get lucky like that.

I agree that it was wrong.. I have experience with customer was very rude to me.. She pulled my fingers to the stuff that she want to buy, was she right to doing this? HMM?!

Customer is the one paying.... so his or her preferences come first... but I must admit, it is a pleasure if the customer leaves the professional element up to us with some directions. We know our shit, so we can really help customers a lot in this aspect.

PuyoPiyo said:

I agree that it was wrong.. I have experience with customer was very rude to me.. She pulled my fingers to the stuff that she want to buy, was she right to doing this? HMM?!

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No! She shoudln't have placee a hand on you at all. All she has to do is point to what she wants, anybody will what that means.

The customers are NOT always right but the responsibility of the business is to make the customers feel that they are being treated as though they are right.

VamPyroX said:

During my times with my previous jobs, I've always been told this one big rule...

"The customer is always right."

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Well....that mantra is what made Nordstroms successful.

I don't argee that customer is always right. I was working at Subway long time ago. A customer gave me her credit card. I checked with her credit card if it is good or bad. It showed me that it was bad. I told her that it was bad. She didnt agree with me. I had to show her the machine. She refuse agree with me because she think Customer is always right. I had to get my owner to deal with her. My owner told her that we cannot give her sandwiches. She was so stubborn and she came back and use her other credit card. We checked it and it still was bad. Then she got so angry and left. CRAZY!

Secretblend said:

No! She shoudln't have placee a hand on you at all. All she has to do is point to what she wants, anybody will what that means.

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*nods agree* Glad I reported her to my boss..

A woman used a CREDIT CARD to buy Subway Sandwhiches? Sounds to me like the woman doesnt even possess the basic knowledge of proper money management. A credit card is basically a small loan in your pocket. You don't get a loan for a hoagie, you get a loan for a home.

More than likely this woman has such poor credit that her momma wouldn' giver her a dollar.

Dixie said:

A woman used a CREDIT CARD to buy Subway Sandwhiches? Sounds to me like the woman doesnt even possess the basic knowledge of proper money management. A credit card is basically a small loan in your pocket. You don't get a loan for a hoagie, you get a loan for a home.

More than likely this woman has such poor credit that her momma wouldn' giver her a dollar.

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uuuuhhh, I use my credit card sometimes to buy fast foods...that means I am bad at money management? Maybe since I am always broke..LOL!

I worked at Sears for five years, eventually became an assistant manager before I started teaching. The customer is NOT always right. I put my foot down when the customer becomes too demanding, rude, abusive, etc. I've been known to say, "If you don't like it here, feel free to take my personal map on how to get to JC Penneys." (Yes, I actually drew a map and had several copies on hand).

I never thought about the fact that the slogan really hurts employees but that's true.

Dixie said:

A woman used a CREDIT CARD to buy Subway Sandwhiches? Sounds to me like the woman doesnt even possess the basic knowledge of proper money management. A credit card is basically a small loan in your pocket. You don't get a loan for a hoagie, you get a loan for a home.

More than likely this woman has such poor credit that her momma wouldn' giver her a dollar.

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For most people, that is probably true. However, I know some people that uses credit card to buy all their stuff and then pay it off every month. They do that cause by keeping money in the bank, they collect interests while using credit card's money to buy stuff. If they pay off the balance every month, it is free money since it falls under grace period.

That would require a person with high self discipline and is able to leave the money alone while it is sitting in the bank while waiting for the due date to arrive.

I unfortunally am not disciplined enough to do that at the moment. I am working on being able to do that in near future.

Secretblend said:

For most people, that is probably true. However, I know some people that uses credit card to buy all their stuff and then pay it off every month. They do that cause by keeping money in the bank, they collect interests while using credit card's money to buy stuff. If they pay off the balance every month, it is free money since it falls under grace period.

That would require a person with high self discipline and is able to leave the money alone while it is sitting in the bank while waiting for the due date to arrive.

I unfortunally am not disciplined enough to do that at the moment. I am working on being able to do that in near future.

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Some people are run debit card as credit on machine without PIN, just require to signature it.

It's usually for people who has been exceed the debit limit or forgot the PIN.

"The customer is always right" is a slogan, a general philosophy to keep in mind and strive for.

Any manager or worker who applies a slogan 100% of the time is in a fantasy world and should seriously consider a line of work where no people are involved.

Shoplifters are customers for cryin' out loud. Some people don't have the sense God gave a goose.

I used to work at JCPenney's years ago. We almost always accepted returns without questions asked -- "the customer is always right" was the motto our manager always told us. Yet I remember one day a woman came in with a bagful of clothes that already had the tags removed (I did recognize the brands as JCPenney's, though) and reeked horribly of smoke. So they clearly had been worn and were dirty, I refused to accept them as a return. It ended up being a 1 hour battle and my manager had to step in, she refused to accept them either. This time, we were right, not the customer. Why should JCPenney's bottom line falter over a customer(s) like that?

AlleyCat said:

I used to work at JCPenney's years ago. We almost always accepted returns without questions asked -- "the customer is always right" was the motto our manager always told us. Yet I remember one day a woman came in with a bagful of clothes that already had the tags removed (I did recognize the brands as JCPenney's, though) and reeked horribly of smoke. So they clearly had been worn and were dirty, I refused to accept them as a return. It ended up being a 1 hour battle and my manager had to step in, she refused to accept them either. This time, we were right, not the customer. Why should JCPenney's bottom line falter over a customer(s) like that?

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That's exactly how I handle customers in similar situations.

When I worked at a local video rental store, there was a boy who would rent Playstation games (this was back when the Playstation was out) then return them asking for credit towards another game because he didn't like the game. We told him that we couldn't allow that. So, he started doing something differently. He would then rent the games, scratch them up badly, and return it for credit towards another game. Our employees will check the games as we rent them out to ensure that they weren't scratched. Yet, he returned them claiming that they were already scratched. So, we put a warning on his parent's account saying that he is no longer allowed to rent games. He would then start coming in with his uncle and cousins... and do the same thing. He got away with it a few times until we recognized the boy standing with them. Since the employees recognized the boy, they would remind the uncle or cousins that the games are in good condition and they cannot be returned if they are damaged because they were not damaged when they were rented out. That boy eventually stopped coming, but he would check by the store from time to time waiting for someone he knows is new to the store before coming in to cheat them. Unfortunately, we had become strict with checking the games that it never happened again.