We have all heard the saying, “The customer is always right.” It was coined by the Selfridge department store founder Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1909. The founder used this phrase to convince customers that his store would provide better service than others, while convincing his employees to give award-winning service.
Whether you believe in it or not, when it comes to customer service, these days there are definite advantages and disadvantages to adopting this mantra.
Advantages:
- You see the customer as someone you are working to win over and work hard to maintain a high level of excellence and service.
- You provide unwavering service to the customer—service that should be stellar and accommodating and leave them walking away with a positive experience. One they want to share with others.
- You create a culture within your business of putting the customers first therefore building a reputation of customer-friendly business and generating loyal customers.
- Customers are people, and sometimes people just need to know someone is on their side. Ensuring a customer that you are there for them to help them with whatever they need takes the relationship from customer and employee to loyal follower.
Disadvantages:
- The truth is, not all customers are right. And some customers can be wrong in a very loud way. Forcing an employee to go along with a customer’s obvious error or lack of respect can lead to resentment from employees and those are the people you work with day in and day out.
- Those few unruly customers take advantage of “The Customer is Always Right” mantra leaving them at times with receiving more perks than those customers that treat employees respectfully.
- It empowers the customer rather than the employee, leaving employees to often feel unsupported by their company and, in turn, unhappy with their place of work.
It is possible to provide unequivocal customer service, while empowering both the cust
omer and the employee. The solution? The Golden Rule: Treat others like you would want to be treated. Be of service to your customers. When the situation arises and it is obvious a particular customer cannot be appeased, despite numerous attempts to make them happy, use your stellar customer service to kindly offer them another business that will meet their needs. Then politely show them the door.
The ‘customer is always right’ mantra, itself has been around since 1909. Maybe it is time for an update. What do you think?
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