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"The Customer is always right" - Truth or Bullshit?

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Of course it's bullshit. You merely pretend that it's true and like coldvein said a good businessman makes his customers feel like it's his mantra. Your boss fucked up because he got too invested in the call. If you can't maintain the illusion you gotta step away.
 
Definitely not. Assuming that someone is right, before a word is even said? Crazy talk. Whilst I would never outright say to a customers face that they've got something totally wrong, I will educate them where necessary to correct misconceptions or knowledge gaps. Generally, that's where they go wrong.
 
Sometimes a customer has a legitimate complaint and should be awarded accordingly.

But just about every person who tried use this line when I was working in retail on me are trying to get something for free.
 
GungHo said:
Some customers aren't worth the trouble. The level of business you'd lose from them is as equivalent or even lesser than the amount of effort you put into attempting to placate them.
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The problem isn't with losing one customer, but the fact that they can then go on Yelp or whatever and trash your business.
 
It's generally best to please customers even if you know you're right and they're wrong. Making a problem go away for a customer retains their support and avoids their bad experience from spreading. Dat's business sometimes.
 
Hell no. When I used to work retail (mainly in a video store), a couple of customers would pull that on me. Sometimes, I would give them what they wanted, if it was within reason. But a couple of times, I flat out said "Not in this case." If they complained to the manager, I was usually backed up on it, so that was nice.
 
Customers are the worst kind of humans. They disgust me and if I ever had to work another day of my life in a retail setting, I'd blow my brains out.
 
Customer is rarely right. The customer is usually a mix of someone who has:

1: No idea what they REALLY want
2: Unusual expectations
3: They make up shit to get what they think they want

Don't get me wrong - there are some customers with very reasonable requests that can be helped, but for most things that escalate into an angry customer, it's one of these 3 things.
 
Grinchy said:
Customers are the worst kind of humans. They disgust me and if I ever had to work another day of my life in a retail setting, I'd blow my brains out.
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Mammoth Jones said:
The customer tends to be selfish, entitled douchebags with no real power in their lives so they go overboard in the few brief situations in their lives where they believe to have "power" over someone.

Case-in-point...
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She had a legitimate complaint. I will give her that. There is no excuse for her attitude though. I would have done everything in my power to help her, but once she starts getting rude and using profanity at a kids store, all bets are off and she needs to get kicked the hell out.

Customers also exagerate things too, like "I drove 30 miles here", when they are 5 miles away. "I have been waiting 40 minutes for a table", its actually only been 5, maam.
 
You start acting like "the customer is always right" and they will come into your store, treat you like utter garbage if they don't get the most insignificant thing they desire and act like it's their right to act like that because "they're always right." Fuck no. Some customers I've helped have had some reasonable complaints and others are absolutely ridiculous.

It's funny how easy we lump together "customers" as if they are all horrible, when in reality, we are all customers of some retail store. The "good customers" are few and far in between. Ones who don't think they are entitled to a figurative massage when they walk into the store. Ones who trust the opinions of the employees and don't hassle them about anything. Ones who thank employees for going out of their way to help them.

I have seen leprechauns more times than I've seen customers like this. But when you (used to) work at Walmart, what do you expect? It's really the worst of the worst when it comes to customers.
 
Of course "the customer is always right" doesn't actually mean "the customer is always right". That would be silly.

It means if the customer comes in and says the sky is green, you don't yell at them.
 
People hold a different standard of morality when it comes to businesses. I'm sure you all have friends or family that obviously believe it is wrong to lie or trick people out of money. But those same people would be okay with lying to a store to get s refund or discount or whatever. It becomes okay to lie because its a a faceless business that they justify by saying the business rips them off.
 
stuminus3 said:
Of course "the customer is always right" doesn't actually mean "the customer is always right". That would be silly.

It means if the customer comes in and says the sky is green, you don't yell at them.
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Of course employees know that the customer isn't always right. The problem lies when the customer's think they are always right, not the other way around. I used to work at a grocery store, one time I had a customer bring in an empty ice cream container complaining it didn't "taste right". The customer made a huge deal out of it, and of course she ate the thing and was just trying to get something for free. The manager ended up doing an exchange for her.

HyperCubed4 said:
It's funny how easy we lump together "customers" as if they are all horrible, when in reality, we are all customers of some retail store. The "good customers" are few and far in between. Ones who don't think they are entitled to a figurative massage when they walk into the store. Ones who trust the opinions of the employees and don't hassle them about anything. Ones who thank employees for going out of their way to help them.
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My favorite place to work at (retail) has been Blockbuster, I had some awesome customers and it was a pleasure seeing them come in regularly. I kind of miss working at that place actually...
 
waypoetic said:
Bullshit.

But you should try to "please" the customer.
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Of course. There are a section of people though that have decided before they even began that they won't leave happy, and this is a problem.
 
Those who uses this quote as an argument tends to have no retort or reply to your previous statement, so yeah it's pretty much a corporate PR bullshit.
 
coldvein said:
obvious bullshit.

its just your job to make the customer FEEL that they are right even when they are blatantly wrong.
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THIS

Even if you have a wealthy business and can afford to loose a customer, it's better to always treat him the best way possible, or he'll certainly ruin your reputation on the market.
 
That saying is not supposed to be true, it's supposed to bring in and keep costumers. if costumers get what they want, whether it's right or wrong, he/she will return for more.
 
Sunflower said:
Of course. There are a section of people though that have decided before they even began that they won't leave happy, and this is a problem.
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Yup. And you can tell which customers are coming in with a chip on their shoulder, or who are playing up the "angry customer" bit just to get free stuff. Part of the reason why I always try to be polite and respectful towards retail workers.

Customer is always right = bullshit
 
Bullshit. The business is there to make money, not bend over backwards for your stupid request. When I worked retail I loved the customers that would try to return a product with zero proof that they actually purchased it at all, much less from my store.
 
WillyFive said:
That saying is not supposed to be true, it's supposed to bring in and keep costumers. if costumers get what they want, whether it's right or wrong, he/she will return for more.
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In the grocery business, it's advised NOT to crack down on shoplifters - as a loss from a shoplifted item is offset by the customer coming back and the legit goods they buy.
 
Customers typically use that in an argument when they know they're wrong but want to have something to hold over the desk clerk they're arguing with to make them fear for their job.
 
The guy who coined the term went bankrupt, lost all of this department stores, and died with nothing to his name.
 
Customer is always right because you want repeat customers even if they're douchebags. At some point though some people will keep trying to scam and then they get a boot.
 
Of course they are not, but sometimes people try to be kind of subservient to customers to try and retain their business. It's unfortunate, but there's gotta be some kind of balance if you want to keep bringing in customers. And employers don't necessarily care much about your dignity etc, so they may expect you to be a bit subservient.
 
cdyhybrid said:
Bullshit. The business is there to make money, not bend over backwards for your stupid request. When I worked retail I loved the customers that would try to return a product with zero proof that they actually purchased it at all, much less from my store.
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Yeah, I hear you. Although when I worked at Staples, we had a spineless manager who would return ANYTHING if the customer threatened to contact corporate. It would always piss me off when someone was trying to return something they bought a year ago, they still had a receipt, been opened, and damaged. I told her we can't do that. She asked for a manager, so he came up. Fucker gave her money back, and made me look bad in front of all the customers in line. Pissed me off.
 
You must do what the customer says (in the end it's their money) but that doesn't make them right.

If anything they're wrong most of the time.
 
Cyan said:
Rule of thumb: if a customer says "the customer is always right" they are probably wrong.
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They're usually wrong but I've dealt with some employees that are clueless. It's the reason I miss small stores with knowledgeable staff. Although big superstores surprise me every once and a while with a well read employee.
 
It's part of my job to let the customer know when they are wrong.

But in the end it's their money and they always get their way as long as they pay for it. But they'd still be wrong.
 
mackattk said:
Yeah, I hear you. Although when I worked at Staples, we had a spineless manager who would return ANYTHING if the customer threatened to contact corporate. It would always piss me off when someone was trying to return something they bought a year ago, they still had a receipt, been opened, and damaged. I told her we can't do that. She asked for a manager, so he came up. Fucker gave her money back, and made me look bad in front of all the customers in line. Pissed me off.
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I had a customer come into the store with steak that they cooked, eaten half of and return it successfully. Anger surged through my veins that day. It wasn't a hassle to throw it away or to deal with it, but it was so infuriating that Customer Service was so eager to bend to the customer's will.
 
Sean said:
The problem isn't with losing one customer, but the fact that they can then go on Yelp or whatever and trash your business.
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People actually take Yelp reviews seriously? I stopped caring about Yelp years ago when I read some douchebag trash my favorite restaurant.
 
I had a very smart manager who once said to me: "Darias, the customer is not always right. However the customer is always the customer."
 
Worked in retail since I was 18, so many years now.

The nice customers are always right, 9 times out of 10. The customers who are assholes are always wrong, 9 times out of 10. This is because they are either trying to intimidate you into giving in and letting them have their own way, or because they're genuinely fucking stupid.
 
Devolution said:
Individual reviews not so much but ratings on restaurants are a very good indicator.
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I have an indian friend that uses Yelp and looks for the Indian restaurants with the worst reviews because he said those will serve the most authentic Indian food.
 
This is why I like shopping at the same few stores or eat mostly at the same places. If the employees there remember me then any problem is resolved very quickly. Like one time I bought a new, still sealed game at my local gamestop but found out the disc wasn't inside. Took it back and they replaced it no questions asked.
 
ronito said:
I have an indian friend that uses Yelp and looks for the Indian restaurants with the worst reviews because he said those will serve the most authentic Indian food.
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With some kinds of food I honestly just ask my friends if they've vetted the place. Like with Dim Sum, I rarely trust Yelp.
 
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