Come on Adobe. On Customer Experience, you can do better than that. #CEM
September 9, 2011The Shawshank Redemption the most viral product and best example of word of mouth marketing ever?
September 20, 2011
photo credit: Chicago Man
I was across at my friend Matthew’s blog, The Big Red Tomato Company, the other day and left a comment on guest post by Yolanda Facio from Red Hot Momentum.
The post was called: Is the customer always right?
With a title like that I was always going to get ‘sucked in’.
Anyway, according to Yolanda ‘the customer is always right’ is a philosophy that originates in the early 1900’s from Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago, who used the phrase as a marketing strategy to convey that at Marshall Field’s the customer was always right, treated well and, thus, a place where you want to shop. The phrase is also associated with Gordon Selfridge, the founder of London’s Selfridges store. If you are interested you can read about the story behind the phrase here.
Yolanda worries in the post that a marketing slogan has become a customer service mantra and that can create all sorts of problems and false and misleading thinking.
I agree.
Here’s what I wrote as a comment:
Hi Yolanda,
There’s a problem with that saying in that many people (as you rightly point out) assume that it implies that every possible customer is always right. That’s false economy.Your post reminded me of an old saying that comes from poet John Lydgate, later adapted by President Lincoln, I think, which goes:
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.
Guess we need to be clear on who our ‘some of the people’ are and focus on them.
Adrian
It’s an old idea but worth sharing again in this world where we see the rising importance of customer service.
I think it gives focus to what we do as businesses, what customers we serve, what signals it sends to our employees.
What do you think?
22 Comments
Is the customer always right OR you can only please some of the people all of the time? http://t.co/lXEX7vnw RT @adrianswinscoe
Adrian, I think you’ve got the balance right.
I’ve learnt to be neutral on whether the customer is right. But I am NOT neutral on the following:
– in raising an issue the customer will always think they are right, and if there’s an issue the key is not right/wrong but how you deal with it;
– if customers appear to be wrong, clarify to make sure you haven’t misunderstood them;
– customers and prospects should always be treated with respect;
– without customers you have no money to pay the bills;
– the leader of a company sets the pattern (through words and behaviour) for how other staff will behave towards customers;
– whether people become your customers or not, they will tell others about their experience and that will influence buying decisions for good or ill on people who may be ideal customers for you…so decide what you want to be known for.
That said, I’m also convinced that there has to be a cultural match between customers and suppliers. And some customers will be wrong for some businesses if values and expectations are not well aligned.
Hi Guy,
Those are some great points. The last point that you made about cultural match…..is that something that you find out about over time or is that something that you screen for in the initial part of a relationship with a customer?
Adrian
Is the customer always right OR you can only please some of the people all of the time? http://t.co/dDYR6Hdt RT @adrianswinscoe”
Is the customer always right OR you can only please some of the people all of the time? http://t.co/NXqN0MQd RT: @adrianswinscoe
Is the customer always right OR you can only please some of the people all of the time? http://t.co/YbBm0L36 by @adrianswinscoe
Can you please all of the people all of the time? http://t.co/9kHdlfVT via @adrianswinscoe
Can you please all of the people all of the time? http://t.co/9kHdlfVT via @adrianswinscoe
No, I don’t think the customer is not always right, if the customer in Domino’s Pizza wants a genuine Italian experience or the customer in McDonald’s wants a steak they are wrong.
I do wonder though how many organisations are really crisp about what they are and aren’t prepared to offer their customers.
Maybe the problem is that the company isn’t always clear?
HI James,
Maybe you are onto something there…….maybe it is that when companies are not clear about they do and don’t do they court problems with customers expectations. Hmmmm sounds like a normal relationship…..don’t you think?
Adrian
Hello Adrian
Your post and the comments are interesting – I particularly like the points that Guy and James make.
It matters how you treat your customer (and your employees for that matter) irrespective of whether you think that the customer is right or wrong. If you treat the customer gracefully with kindness then you create goodwill in the heart of the customer. And it does not stop there – you create kindness in the hearts of all the other customers that are watching your encounter with the ‘difficult customer’. This happened to me (and fellow customers) recently in a Santander bank: we were delighted with how patient, calm and helpful the cashier was being towards a difficult customer – and an encounter that took some ten minutes when it could have taken about two minutes. Gandhi was the perfect example of this: whilst he ‘opposed’ the actions of many people and organisations he was carefully never to diminish the worth of his fellow human beings (including “adversaries”) in any way. This is called compassion and it really speaks to many of us.
Secondly, how do you know that the customer is wrong? When we do not want to own up to our responsibility and take the appropriate action the automatic action is to make the other wrong – the same way that white Americans were able to decimate the red Indians and enslave the blacks – label them as less than human, label them as “wrong”.
I was once handed an extremely difficult client (B2B): he was never happy and was always complaining no matter what we did for him. Yes, it was tempting to blame him. Further digging and the Gandhi philosphy showed that he had never wanted to do business with us yet his arm had been twisted by the salesman. This chap was not used to doing business with a large company and the way it behaves. As such he interpreted our “professional practices” as “cold” and ways to “charge more” by gold plating stuff. So who was wrong? Us for taking him on as a customer or him?
One of my assertions is that you should be bold and clear about what you stand for and who exactly you are serving (seeking to do business with). And then be 100% focussed on taking on only those customers. And if you make a mistake then as soon as you find out then gracefully terminate the relationship.
Finally, if you read Chris Zane’s Reinventing The Wheel you might find a surprise: Chris has built an incrediblly success cycle business against formidable competitors simply from standing in the circle called “I can trust the customer and he/she is always right and decent”. Has he come across some people who have not fitted in with that stance? Yes, Were they the exceptions? Yes. Did the way that he treat these customers personally set the model for how his employees should behave? Absolutely! Did the difficult customer who took advantage in the end pay Chris back? Yes, by making bigger purchases…..
Maz,
As always you always add value and extend the conversation with your comments.
I agree that we should pick who we do business with but should realise that we never always get it right and to be courteous and respectful at all times is a standard that we should all live by. Maybe if we all did a little more of this on a continuous basis the world and business would be a better place.
Finally, thanks also for the book reference. I have heard of Chris Zane but did not know that he had written a book….just ordered it 🙂
Adrian
The alternative to ‘right’ is ‘wrong’, which seems to give little flexibility between the two to either customer or company, and immediately starts to lead both down a dead-end path that has little or no constructive ending. Perhaps a more effective question might be – did you achieve what you set out to (to a customer), and did you deliver what you promised to (to an organisation).
Hi Guy,
Thanks for your comment and I agree that painting things in black and white is not the most positive way to portray things and looking at things like:
What did we promise
What did you expect
What did we deliver
What did you receive
are better ways of understanding what has actually happened and how it can be fixed, rectified etc.
Adrian
Ok – show of hands folks….All parents, managers and judges — Feedback time:
When was the last time you could keep all of your kids happy?
Make your employees thrilled about all of your decisions?
Yield a verdict where both parties “won?”
As a university professor who teaches marketing, and successfully runs several businesses, I love the idea that the customer is always right. It’s a lovely notion. After all, who wouldn’t want to always be right? And the saying reflects a time when there were clear class distinctions where “people who served” clearly were expected to be completely defferential to the “being served” class.
The phrase “The customer is always right” is lovely; As Adrian expertly notes it reflect a managerial need to remind our employees that “yes, our customers are our guests, and they should be treated as such, even if it means to the extreme notion that they are always right.”
But they’re not.
In the self-centered, combative, impolite society we now engage in , some customers have taken this phrase to the nth degree and made a mockery of it. Others have used it to scam well-meaning entrepreneurs.
I didn’t say all — so please no one get their hackles up – I said SOME. We’ve all seen it done, discussed and even lampooned it in cartoons.
The point is, customers always DO have RIGHTS – they have a right to their opinion (ie: “Your customer service SUCKS”). They have a right to their view (ie: “XYZ is charing half the price you are — no really – you dont’ need to call them and ask I’m TELLING YOU they are…”). They have a right to those opinions and feelings. And we as business owners have a right too – to LISTEN, try to hear the real MESSAGE of what these people are (sometimes poorly) trying to say and then evaluate: do they have a point? IF so – what do I do about it?
I have customers. Lot’s of them. They’re not always right, but they do HAVE rights. And when my customer is actually WRONG, I don’t have to be a jerk about telling them so. (A skill completely lost by most customer service representatives, many retail clerks, etc).
The mantra “The customer is always right” is a bit like the age old dilemma most spouses experience when they are asked “honey, does this [dress, pants, etc] make my butt look big?”
It’s not an easy situation or conversation to manuever; and if you handle the situation badly, you’re REALLY going to be paying for it for a while.
So lesson learned: handling the delicacies of customer conflict is a bit like cooing over someone’s child: no one likes hearing their baby’s ugly. Tact, listening and empathy are all vital arts /skills in dealing with customers. Managers would do well to not blindly follow the well meaning mantras of a century ago and help their employees learn the skills so that they can live the SPIRIT of those sayings.
Class dismissed. Have a good weekend – no homework. The only grades you get are the results from taking action from the super readings you’ve been absorbing and implenting them. The only grades are the number of zeros that scroll across your pay check.
Hi Christina,
What a lesson! And, extension to the post. As you rightly point out, realising when someone is right and when someone is wrong and how you deal with that situation is where the real skill lies and goes to the heart of great service and being the sort of business, I believe, will really sustainably compete in this new and ever changing world that we live in.
Thanks again,
Adrian