Is the customer always right?

‘The customer is always right’. Everyone who’s ever worked in retail, customer service or the restaurant business has heard this tired old marketing phrase. In my native language Dutch we say ‘de klant is Koning’, which means: ‘the customer is King’. For many employees and business owners this sometimes means that customers can be a ‘royal’ pain in the ass.

As an online entrepreneur with years of working in customer service under my belt I am of the firm conviction that having the ear of your customers, listening to their needs, fixing a problem swiftly or offering a viable alternative with empathy is absolutely essential for your long term success. Aside from working with your heart at the right place, most money can be earned through repeat business. Would you like to earn $100 one time from one customer? Or thousands of dollars from the same customer years on end?

You do that by offering great service and making the customer feel more like a welcome guest than a client. 

However, there are limits to what you can and must do to placate your customers. So, with that in mind, is the customer always right?

Now, I realize that if you’re focusing on promoting affiliate products you probably don’t have to worry about dealing with customers. People who’ve bought a product you’re promoting who have a question or complaint can be forwarded to the actual company who owns this product.

But if you’re selling your own products or if you offer some sort of consulting services, you will be dealing directly with customers in one capacity or another. I myself, working as a freelance online marketer, have to communicate with clients on an almost daily basis. And overall this is a rewarding experience. But there are, alas, exceptions to this.

The Selfridge Department Store Example

The phrase ‘The Customer is Always Right’ was originated in 1909 by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the American owner of the famous Selfridge Department store in London, England. The blueprint he used for designing the store, from the layout of the building itself to the way his employees had to operate is used as a benchmark for many retail businesses to this day. There’s even a television series about him, starring Jeremy Piven.

His store was mostly focused on getting the clientele of what the British call the Upper Class and the Upper Middle Class. Aristocrats and well to businessmen and their wives.  In order for him to accomplish this he trained his staff to take care of every need of his customers and be as friendly and polite as possible. The motto for his staff was ‘the customer is always right’. Other businesses took this motto to heart even to this day. But as anyone who’s ever worked with customers will tell you, this motto needs to go the way of the dodo.

Or as one business consultant I spoke to recently told me: ‘I wonder which idiot in marketing ever told the customers this.’

I’ve worked in customer service for about 7 years, as a call center agent for a couple of major providers. Answering the phone, helping people with their problems, which ranged from fixing their Wi-Fi, explaining bills and sometimes upgrading or downgrading their subscription. 95% of the clients were just normal people with a problem that needed fixing. But 5% were either rude, demanding or sometimes threatening and at times plain wacky.

Or as a real estate agent put it: ‘5% of the costumers will give you 95% of the grieve. So in summary, no, the customer is not always right. In this article I will give you a couple of examples when the customer (or client) is not right and when it’s time to fire your client. Sometimes it becomes necessary to fire your client. I will write about the moment this happens and how you can do this.

Some customers cost you money

At my time working at a Social Media department at a major internet provider we had to deal with a not particular smart customer who had broken a $600 mobile phone twice within the space of 2 weeks. What happened? This smartphone, made by a well-known brand, was supposed to be completely waterproof. However it wasn’t. It happened to be tested by various consumer programs all over the world and while this smartphone still was one of the best of its generation, it wasn’t waterproof.

Knowing this, our customer after buying this phone on our website decided to test this claim by putting the phone into a bucket of water for at least 30 minutes. Not surprisingly the phone broke. And wrote to complain about it on our Facebook Page. To fix this as soon as possible and to avoid any PR backlash we sent him a completely new phone. The exact same model, as he wanted. But we also sent a friendly reminder with his phone that this model was NOT waterproof. 

A couple of days later he came back on Facebook with the same complaint. When he received his new, second phone, he immediately tested it again using a bucket of water. Even though we had warned him not to do this. He again demanded a new phone again the same model.  This time, in a friendly, polite manner, we denied him. We were not going to spend another $600, making it a total of $1200 to placate him. We had warned him profusely and if we would have gone along again with his demands we wouldn’t have made any more money from him.

You’re a business owner to make money, so if a client is costing you money, it’s time to let him go. 

Now, if certain actions of your business have cost your client some money or caused some damage, of course you need to reimburse these. Not least to do some reputation management.

But if a client is costing you more money than he or she is bringing in, then it’s time to fire the customer.

Your employees are the most important part of your business

In his book ‘The thank you economy’ famous entrepreneur Gary Vaynarchuck writes about the value for any type of business to offer excellent customer service and having a great relationship with the clients. However, he also states that your employees are the most important part of your business. Before your clients.

Choosing the side of your customers every time, even when they are being completely unreasonable, can be devastating to the morale of your employees. Your staff will think you and/or your management is weak and not there for them. Employees who before would be hardworking and motivated will become dissatisfied and maybe even leave. And as any entrepreneur worth his salt will tell you:  good help is hard to find. 

 When you’re dealing with an irate client, what do you think is the better path? Choosing his side or your employee with the perfect track record and who’s been with you for years? The choice should be easy. When your staff knows you’re 100% behind them, they will give 100% at the job. Which in turn will also mean a satisfied customer base. 

Is it worth throwing that all away all to placate one client? I think not.

Clients can make unreasonable or unrealistic demands

When I was just starting out as an online consultant I was trying to negotiate a contract with a taxi company to do some SEO and marketing advice. At first the contact was very friendly and cordial, but over time their demands became somewhat weird. It turned out they were also getting into the security business (mainly offering club bouncers to various bars and clubs) and wanted me to recruit possible candidates to become bouncers. This all sounded very dodgy and is also completely not my line of work. I tried to communicate that this was not a service I offered, but they were adamant recruiting bouncers would become part of the contract.

In the end I sent them a very friendly email telling them that I would have enjoyed working with them, but because of time constraints I couldn’t give them the attention they needed. In the same email I also gave the option to contact another well-known firm. They answered that they were sorry I couldn’t cooperate with them, but were grateful for my honesty and the suggestion of an alternative company.

Almost any business owner or freelancer will have to deal with customers that make unreasonable or unrealistic demands. Either stand your ground or refer such a client to another company.

Clients will demand your availability in your personal life

One time I had a client who had problem trying to reach me through Facebook Messenger at 1 AM in the middle of the night. He had a problem that I didn’t cause, but could fix for him easily. Well, I could have, if I wasn’t sound asleep. He was mad as hell that I didn’t answer him immediately. I stayed calm the next day, fixed his problem, but also told him when I could and could not be reached by him. 

A fellow freelancer had a similar problem when he was called by an irate client at his brother’s wedding. That client also demanded to be helped immediately. 

You as a business owner can avoid this by making some guidelines with your clients at what time you can and can’t be reached. Most clients in my experience are quite reasonable and will except those guidelines. They have a personal life as well.

But every now and then you come across a client who will demand your time and attention 24/7. If you’re a freelancer or the owner of a small business, this is quite unreasonable and will take a huge demand of your time. You can either ask a very high hourly rate for this demand. Or you can let this client go.

No is a viable and reasonable answer to give to a customer

A friend of mine worked in retail at a company where it was absolutely forbidden to say ‘no’ to a customer, whatever the situation. The consequence of this was that he was involved in many Kafkaesque situations where he had to say to a customer ‘I can’t do that, but what I can do is’, even though the customer asked a straight yes or no question. Even the most reasonable, friendly customers would become irritated by that.

Every now and then you have to tell a client ‘no’ to whatever he is asking. If done in an empathetic and friendly manner, most customers will accept this. Especially when you offer a good alternative or if needed refer the customer to a competitor.

Some people are just complete jerks or idiots

Working in customer service I had some people cursing and yelling at me. A college roommate one time had a death threat. A mechanic at my IT company was locked in the basement of one irate customer and had to be released by the police. And anyone working in retail will have a ton of stories of rude customers who would be complete jerks every time they walked into the store.

What I mean to say by this: there are some people you just can’t please, whatever you do. They will always be rude, obnoxious or want to take advantage of you.  They will be a complete nuisance to you, your staff and even worse: other customers. Is it really worth your sanity to placate that kind of customer? Hell no!

Conclusion

Finally, after reading this you would think my experience with customer in general wasn’t that great. However, I can assure you, the reverse is true! Both working in customer service and as a freelance consultant I had many, many great moments with clients! 

But to the premise of this article: ‘Is the customer always right? I can whole heartedly say: no, the customer isn’t always right. If this is your motto, in the long run it will be bad for business. As you can read in my examples above.

You can lose money, your employees will become demotivated and your own personal life and free time can suffer.  So, sometimes it pays off to fire your customer.

Tim Ferries states in is now famous book ‘The 4 hour workweek’ that his business really began to take off when he let a couple of difficult customers go. It gave him the time and motivation to really focus on his other clients, which in turn made those much happier.

That is also my advice: it is both important to know which type of clients you want to do business with and which type of clients you don’t want to do business with.

Does this mean that you as a business owner need to be rude or strict yourself? No, of course not! You still have to remain friendly and polite in almost every dealing you have with clients, even when you need to put your foot down.

Next week I will focus on how you can offer excellent customer service, while still managing realistic expectations.