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Is Customer Always Right?

Business/Customer Relationship

Everyday people all over the world deal in a specific type of relationship. It's an arrangement that has been going on for centuries. That relationship is the business to customer relationship. It certainly is a complex relationship. Typically this dynamic is a one on one relationship but both sides are very different. Looking at those two different sides of that relationship and you will quickly reveal vast differences. While it should be sympathetic from both sides since we switch these roles on a very regular basis. The person running a business at the moment will get off work eventually and sometimes stops at the local grocer to buy a gallon of milk. In their earlier position they were a business helping customers but later became the customer dealing with a new business person. In the end this dynamic doesn't change how we perceive one another.

Running a Business

How do we define a person who runs a business? For the sake of this blog I am mainly referring to any person working the job that deals with a customer or client base. This could be anyone from the company CEO to a janitor or front line personnel working the cash counter. There are other business professionals out there that may not necessarily deal with a customer base at all but they are really not a part of the focus of this article. Employees of a business that have regular dealings with the intended or unintended customers coming in and out of the establishment are the primary focus of this article. In this example you are running a business for your day to day operations whether or not you're the “boss” of your particular organization. This position in this relationship from a competition or conflict standpoint can appear as a position of authority in the relationship. It's an easy step to see this person this way from either side. The person running the business seems to have more authority than the customer. They work within the establishment and have a better grasp and understanding of the purpose of the establishment. This side of the relationship as a person who works within the business typically around five days a week or more also has access to higher authority within the organization, policy documentation, and in many cases has been trained to work in that area. In some cases the very job description of the person we are analyzing here tells them that they are in charge of some aspect, if not all, of the inner workings of that business. For them their position is clear, they are in charge of everything to even include the customer base that deals with their business. This sometimes even seems to be the case when it's the employee that is actually visiting the customers establishment to conduct their business. Is that thought process accurate however to describe the authority of a person working the business when dealing with the customer/client of the business?

Customers

To answer that question we should take a moment to define what a customer is for the sake of this article. A customer is mainly a person who is receiving services, products, or otherwise from the business. This can include a person who has called for a technician to work on a washer machine in the home to a person who has called for a technician coming to another establishment to work on a piece of equipment. It can also include the person who is buying a product at the register to a person coming in for dental work at a dental office. In this dynamic the customer perceives themselves as in charge. They are paying for and/or authorizing products and services. They feel that the buck stops with them as they have the money the business wants and they can choose whether or not they want those services. At times especially when entering a business establishment they may feel that there actually is a certain amount of power to the business as it is still their property. In many cases a business establishment is still private property even though they allow customers to come and go through the front door regularly during business hours. In the end the customer typically feels like they are in power and in charge of their dealings with the business but again is this accurate? Who is in charge of the business vs. customer relationship?

Customer Is Always Right?

There is an old expression that the customer is always right? I am sure that expression came about for many different reasons. Is this expression accurate or right though? Maybe it is but an expression so general leaves a lot of room for inaccuracies. Perhaps the original intent of the phrase is still relevant but I would presume not always. In a world full of entitlement we have to take a step back and ask ourselves if the customer is always right. For example if a customer walks into a restaurant and orders a hamburger with fries and a coke but the restaurant doesn't serve that food the customer is wrong and the establishment should not feel obligated to make a food item that is not on the menu and never has been. This may seem like a bazaar case but unfortunately if you spend a little time on social media you will find that this particular case has actually happened. A customer who feels they are always right will demand to see a manager when the person running the business at that table in the moment refuses to take an order for an item that is not even in the establishment. It would be no different for me if a customer walked into Kiser Technologies and asked for a burger. We aren't even a restaurant so we would not be able to oblige that customer. Could the customer become irritated with my place of business because I didn't serve their needs? Perhaps but in this odd example the customer would not be right. In this particular case the position of authority is in fact on the business side because the customer is demanding a product that the business does not supply. If I ran a restaurant instead of a business that revolves around Information Technology should I still make them a burger even if I don't have that on the menu. I suppose that would be up to the business if they even had the necessary materials to make that order. It would also be up to the business management if they would even take a risk on producing low quality service for an item they don't customarily make as well. If the restaurant makes the meal for the customer that they don't routinely make the customer will feel they were in a position of power but they are one hundred percent wrong. The business had the power and authority in that relationship to decide if they were going to make that meal or not. They may have decided to make that order for the customer but that was still their authority deciding to accommodate the unusual request for the customer. They have the authority to decline that request as well. They also have the authority to charge a premium price for that burger as they can justify changing things in their kitchen in order to make that burger. If the business apologetically says they can't make the burger and fries for that customer and the customer doesn't want to take “No” for an answer the business owner can of course tell me to leave. They can refuse the business of the customer. As hard as that may seem to be a common case it is possible that the behavior of the customer can actually make the business decide it's not worth the money they may make in a sale to that customer to continue doing business with them. It's also possible that the business may actually decide that having this one customer in their establishment may actually cost them money from other potentially more cooperative customers. These are decisions a business has to make. In this dynamic the business owner has all of the authority. Is that always the case though?

Certainly not. There are times where the customer is in fact right. I will say however that In more modern business to customer relationships I probably wouldn't put the word always in that old expression. There are also times where the customer may be wrong but it's in the best interest of the business from a long term standpoint to make the decision to let the customer win in the current situation. It's a bit of a balancing act I suppose. If you are rigid and don't work with your customers especially through the gray areas you may in the long term feel that customers do not return for repeat business. You may also suddenly see that the customers lean towards competitors for the same services.

Don’t Hurt the Business

As an example if you sell equipment that requires a computer network to be present at the clients place of business you may design a contractual expectation that the client will maintain that functioning network. That is perfectly reasonable in an ever growing world that is interconnected from device to device. If the client provides that network and it is functioning properly it's my job as a business to ensure that my equipment I sold the client is adaptable to the clients network environment. Not the other way around. As an information technology specialist I can’t sell a piece of equipment to my client and then expect them to change the entire enterprise network configuration throughout the establishment to work with my equipment. Indeed it is bad for business for me to develop a modern network component that can adapt to the various network environments that my clients may have. In fact, since Cyber Security issues are rampant throughout the globe, enterprise level businesses and clients are constantly configuring their networks to ensure that the network environment is safe. Every piece of equipment on that network must be able to follow suit. If my equipment can’t do that I will lose that customer either right away or eventually. It's only a matter of time.

Additionally, that restaurant from my earlier example wants to attract customers that will use their establishment for dining and entertainment. If the restaurant is hopeful to have a more family atmosphere their customers wanting a hamburger for their kids is not outside a reasonable request any longer. Perhaps it was not considered to have a kids menu or perhaps the burger was simply overlooked. Though the customer may have been “wrong” for asking for something not on the menu the business may look at the situation and decide that they too may have been wrong for not offering that possibility. The business adapts, perhaps even learns from the situation to attract more customers. The business grows by this choice, and they may even develop a long term relationship with that customer. Lesson here is simple. Businesses need a lot of things to function in a long term business world but the number one thing they need to make it work is a customer base. If you open your doors for the first time and get no customers the business fails before it even starts. If you open your doors to crowds of expecting customers you're a success on day one but if your business fails to continue attracting those and other customers through a rigid stance against the customer the business will fail.

Through all of these examples it's clear that sometimes we can’t give in to every customer demand. Our business may not look the best if we produce a product the customer demands that our business is simply not set up to produce. There is also the fact that if we don't have the required ingredients and materials we simply won't be able to produce that product no matter how much the customer wants it or we want to produce it. Despite all of that we also have to remember that sometimes it's better to remember that the customer is right a lot of the time even if we may feel in our hearts that they are not. All of these facts means especially if you're not the owner of the business and you have a supervisor/boss you should consider what your boss would have wanted you to do to put the businesses best foot forward. So back to the beginning, through all of this is the phrase the customer is always right still relevant. Well perhaps it should be reworded for some cases but if you want to stay successful in this increasingly competitive world you should probably decide that the answer is most of the time and simply, Yes!

Walter Kiser 11/18/2024

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