Banned in Florida

[babraham]

Originally Posted by Aaron Seefeldt

So I take it the last couple of guys to post don’t believe “the customer is always right”?

The full quote is actually "the customer is always right, in matters of taste."

And...heck no. It's gotten so much worse since Covid too. Customers are more rude, eager to yell, and even threaten violence. The vast majority are still good...but the "bad customers" are much much worse than even just five years ago. I invite anyone that believes "the customer is always right" to work a week at my retail store and see how quickly their mind changes.

[Aaron Seefeldt]

From Wikipedia:

“The customer is always right" is a motto or slogan which exhorts service staff to give a high priority to customer satisfaction. It was popularised by pioneering and successful retailers such as Harry Gordon Selfridge, John Wanamaker and Marshall Field. They advocated that customer complaints should be treated seriously so that customers do not feel cheated or deceived. This attitude was novel and influential when misrepresentation was rife and caveat emptor ('let the buyer beware') was a common legal maxim.[1] Variations include le client n'a jamais tort ('the customer is never wrong'), which was the slogan of hotelier César Ritz,[2] who said, "If a diner complains about a dish or the wine, immediately remove it and replace it, no questions asked."[3] A variation frequently used in Germany is der Kunde ist König ('the customer is king'), while in Japan the motto okyakusama wa kamisama desu (お客様は神様です), meaning 'the customer is a god', is common.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Neither the businessman or the customer are always right. It's a ridiculous slogan that holds no place if you wish to be logical.

The businessman should strive to work with the customer towards the most satisfactory outcome for both parties. Sometimes this is just impossible, and one has to weigh if it makes any sense to spend more time on a situation/customer/business. Strange/difficult personalities will occasionaly rear their heads. I don't blame any businessperson for throwing in the towel and moving on to the next task when faced with that. Personally, I've never needed a sale so badly that I'll tolerate dealing with an obstinate customer. No, thanks.

[Kco]

Originally Posted by babraham

The full quote is actually "the customer is always right, in matters of taste."

And...heck no. It's gotten so much worse since Covid too. Customers are more rude, eager to yell, and even threaten violence. The vast majority are still good...but the "bad customers" are much much worse than even just five years ago. I invite anyone that believes "the customer is always right" to work a week at my retail store and see how quickly their mind changes.

This, customers are in fact quite often rude, abusive, threatening and generally think they can just get whatever they want with zero courtesy in a LOT of interactions.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Kco

This, customers are in fact quite often rude, abusive, threatening and generally think they can just get whatever they want with zero courtesy in a LOT of interactions.

Always curious how other businesses handle horrible customers. Would love to hear from other business owners.

I owned a construction company. In construction if you are a horrible customer your name will be added to a list that we share with other construction companies. Once on that list you will pay a LOT more than anyone else for the exact same work. It is a tax we add for being "hard" to deal with.

[Kco]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Always curious how other businesses handle horrible customers. Would love to hear from other business owners.

I owned a construction company. In construction if you are a horrible customer your name will be added to a list that we share with other construction companies. Once on that list you will pay a LOT more than anyone else for the exact same work. It is a tax we add for being "hard" to deal with.

It truly depends on each individual situation, when our business is the one that made the mistake, its immediate replacement (if available) or full refund at customers choice along with a credit toward a future transaction. If the situation is not solvable by standard means, we work with the customer to get to a satisfactory resolution to the best of our ability.

If we cannot get to a satisfactory resolution where the customer is unreasonable, threatening or abusive, we "break up" with that customer, deactivate their account and ban future accounts linked to them. While not often and not our goal, the reality is you will never make everyone happy and that's just a part of business.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Kco

It truly depends on each individual situation, when our business is the one that made the mistake, its immediate replacement (if available) or full refund at customers choice along with a credit toward a future transaction. If the situation is not solvable by standard means, we work with the customer to get to a satisfactory resolution to the best of our ability.

If we cannot get to a satisfactory resolution where the customer is unreasonable, threatening or abusive, we "break up" with that customer, deactivate their account and ban future accounts linked to them. While not often and not our goal, the reality is you will never make everyone happy and that's just a part of business.

This is generally how we approach our business.

At the same time, as was also suggested, for a customer that consistently demands more, the price for our services rise commensurately. Either they stick around and pay the higher price to get the level of service they need, or they move on and become someone else’s problem. Naturally this only works in a business where prices can be modified for each customer.