The Customer Is Always Right? Wrong!

Diwali season is not the greatest of times to go shopping in India if you are as finicky about your personal space as I am. For years I have religiously avoided stepping into malls and shops during festival periods. But last weekend, a surprise birthday party invitation from my son’s classmate sent me scurrying to a retail store in the hunt for a suitable gift.

The store, one of the largest in the city, was bursting at the seams with human beings… obviously someone had forgotten to tell these guys that the world was experiencing it’s worst recession in history! After a nerve-wracking 45-minute pursuit, I was delighted to find the “right” gift for the six-year old and dashed across to the billing counter.

As luck would have it, I chose the wrong counter! While people in the other queues were completing their billing process and disappearing before one could say “diwali shopping”, my queue just wouldn’t move! The young lady in-charge of the counter was clearly a newbie and very obviously lacked adequate training on the billing application. She was punching one key every 32 seconds! To make matters worse, each of the four customers ahead of me seemed to be under the impression that shopping was going out of fashion and had picked up cartloads of stuff. And here I was… waiting not-so-patiently for my turn to bill one little box of magic tricks. Hmmm, at that point of time it was I who desperately needed a magic potion to keep my cool. And then it happened… 

The guy standing behind me lost it completely! He stormed the counter and made his displeasure felt to… well, the entire store!!! I was about to join in and support “our” cause when without warning the guy unleashed a barrage of expletives at the stunned girl. The tantrum worked. Within seconds the floor manager appeared and started apologizing profusely to the irate customer. The manager then promptly arranged for another team member to take charge of the billing counter just as the humiliated girl vanished in thin air right in front of dozens of piercing eyes. The drama ended as abruptly as it had begun and life was thankfully back to being mundane again.

The floor manager was obviously a proponent of “The Customer Is Always Right” philosophy. But was it the right approach in handling this particular customer? I don't think so.

“The Customer Is Always Right” phrase was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, founder of the Selfridges department store in London in 1909. Though this adage has now deservedly assumed iconic status and is probably the most recited mantra among businesses across the globe, I feel it is not relevant across all situations… certainly not against abusive customers. 

It is justified when a customer loses his/her temper when the service received is not up to the individual’s expectations. Though unpleasant, it is also understandable when a customer under duress screams his/her guts out at the service provider. But even the most unacceptable level of service does not give a customer the right to hurl personal abuses at employees.

A management not standing up for its employees against an abusive customer actually adds insult to the employees’ injury. Because apart from being disgraced by the customer, the employees feel betrayed by their own management, thereby leading them to believe that the management does not value or respect them enough. This adversely affects their morale and could finally lead to worse customer service. Hence following “the customer is always right” policy blindly can actually turn out be counter-productive!

So what do you think? Is the customer always right? Or, like you and me, can s/he be sometimes wrong?