Is the customer always right?

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THE Net tells us many things and that the phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to convince customers that they will get good service at this company.

Obviously, keeping customers satisfied ranks first among job requirements of customer service employees in, I would say, every business establishment.  While business owners understand the real meaning of this phrase, some customers may not – especially the difficult and abusive ones.

There is a suggestion that businesses ought to abandon this phrase once and for all. This suggestion is not without good reasons.

Difficult customers make employees unhappy. A CEO of Continental Airlines said he wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way the airline treated them. He said that just because a customer buys a ticket does not give him the right to abuse the employees.

We cannot deny that there are also bad employees who give lousy customer service but resolving an employee-customer conflict causes resentment among employees and will be counter-productive. Instead of declaring that the customer was always right, the employee may be supported with more training and equip him with more customer service ammos.

The maxim also gives customers an unfair advantage, especially the abusive ones. Applying the maxim means giving abusive customers better treatment than the nice and pleasant ones. That seemed wrong to a management expert who said it makes much more sense to be nice to nice customers so they keep coming back.

Some customers are simply bad for business. ServiceGruppen of Denmark proudly tells its story: One of our service technicians was treated very rudely by a customer so we promptly canceled the customer’s contract. In short, they did not fire the employee. They fired the customer instead. “It was a simple matter of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right.”

The maxim results in worse customer service. American Express CEO Rosenbluth wrote a book called Put the Customer Second – Put your people first and watch them kick butt, arguing that if you put your people first, they will put customers first.

Putting employees first will make them happy at work, thus give better customer service because they will care more about other people including customers, have more energy, are more fun to talk to and interact with, and more motivated.

A company that consistently sides with customers send a clear message that employees are not valued, treating them fairly is not important, they have no right to be respected by customers.  When these prevail, employees stop caring about service such that the best customers can only hope for fake good service.

There are customers who are just plain wrong. An airline CEO was quoted as saying that they make it clear that their employees come first even if it means dismissing customers. Customers are not always right, “and I think that’s one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss can possibly commit. The customer is sometimes wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write them off and say, ‘Don’t abuse our people.’”

So is the customer always right?  Businesses just need to put their people first – and watch them put the customers first according to the “Chief Happiness Officer,” Alexander Kjerulf, the author of Happy Hour is 9 to 5: How to love your job, love your life and kick but at work.