Annie Anderson | Blog

Is the customer always right?

Hey! I'm so glad you're here! Pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee or whatever you prefer and make yourself comfortable. I hope you enjoy your visit. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for stopping by!

This morning I happened upon a great article about customer service over at Alexander Kjerulf’s website and thought I’d talk about that a little bit today too. Alexander’s article, “Top 5 Reasons ‘The Customer is Always Right’ is Wrong” echoes my own sentiments.

One of the points he makes is that employers must value their employees and it’s near impossible to do so with a silly policy that the customer is always right. That kind of thinking doesn’t value employees at all and ultimately leads to poorer customer service because employees become resentful.

As Alexander notes:

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.

I completely agree with this. As someone who has worked in customer service in a variety of industries over the past 20 years, I’ve seen poor employee/employer relationships develop because of this very thing. And when my parents implemented the philosophy that the customer is NOT always right in their retail business several years ago, we saw business sky rocket in a matter of months.

You know, it’s kind of like disciplining your children - when they understand the boundaries, when the boundaries are consistent, children are often much happier. They feel safe, they feel secure and they know you care about them. They know they can trust and respect you.

Sure, your customers might test the boundaries now and then but over time, you develop a track record of consistency and fairness and pretty soon, others start flocking to you because they know you’re honest and responsible. And that’s what helps business grow.

I hope this has been helpful to you. Let me know your thoughts. Tomorrow we’ll talk about some of the various projects you’ll see around here soon.

Chat later,

Share