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When the customer isn’t right – for your business
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:
Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim – ironically because it leads to bad customer service. Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong. 1: It makes employees unhappyGordon Bethune is a brash Texan (as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally) who is best known for turning Continental Airlines around “From Worst to First,” a story told in his book of the same title from 1998. He wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that the maxim “the customer is always right” didn’t hold sway at Continental. In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side with his people. Here’s how he puts it:
So Bethune trusts his people over unreasonable customers. What I like about this attitude is that it balances employees and customers, where the “always right” maxim squarely favors the customer – which is not a good idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes resentment among employees. Of course there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service. But trying to solve this by declaring the customer “always right” is counter-productive. 2: It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantageUsing the slogan “The customer is always right” abusive customers can demand just about anything – they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes the employees’ job that much harder, when trying to rein them in. Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back. 3: Some customers are bad for businessMost businesses think that “the more customers the better”. But some customers are quite simply bad for business. Danish IT service provider ServiceGruppen proudly tell this story:
Just like Kelleher dismissed the irate lady who kept complaining (but somehow also kept flying on Southwest), ServiceGruppen fired a bad customer. Note that it was not even a matter of a financial calculation – not a question of whether either company would make or lose money on that customer in the long run. It was a simple matter of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right. 4: It results in worse customer serviceRosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency, took it even further. CEO Hal Rosenbluth wrote an excellent book about their approach called Put The Customer Second – Put your people first and watch�em kick butt. Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because:
On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:
When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible – the best customers can hope for is fake good service. You know the kind I mean: corteous on the surface only. 5: Some customers are just plain wrongHerb Kelleher agrees, as this passage From Nuts! the excellent book about Southwest Airlines shows:
If you still think that the customer is always right, read this story from Bethune’s book “From Worst to First”:
The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that businesses are better of without them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over employees is a very bad idea, that results in worse customer service. So put your people first. And watch them put the customers first. UPDATE: Kinkoids Unite – a site for Kinko’s workers AdultDVDTalk (huh?) Reddit If you liked this post, there’s a good chance you’ll also enjoy:
Which of the following is the most important dimensions of customer service?#1 Just Do It. RELIABILITY: Do what you say you're going to do when you said you were going to do it. Customers want to count on their providers. They value that reliability.
Which of the following is an example of proof provider?A testimonial in story or anecdotal form used as a proof provider.
Is the process of identifying prospects who have a need for your product and should be contacted?Prospecting is the first step in the sales process, which consists of identifying potential customers, aka prospects. The goal of prospecting is to develop a database of likely customers and then systematically communicate with them in the hopes of converting them from potential customer to current customer.
Which of the following is a reason why a prospect raises objections?Which of the following is a reason why a prospect raises objections? The prospect wants to avoid the sales interview.
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