Why "the customer is always right" is wrong

Absolutely right, except the catchphrase for politicians, thought they hate to admit it, is, "the buck stops here... and then we spend it".

Stew Leonards made that quote famous and now have made it infamous. They do not do right by customer anymore. They blatantly do not follow through on their sign, return a dead plant with origninal receipt within 1 year of buying. Further they are abusive, nasty and give a run around wasting customer's time. I will never buy anything from them again. I used to buy a lot for a decade.

Mark,

Agreed. Some customers aren't right for some businesses. Part of this is deciding, as a business, what you want to be. If cash is king, then maybe the meth head is right. But if you have some additional reasons for being in business - maybe you're passionate about solving a particular problem, or a certain class of products, that passion will come with opinions. It's those opinions that will help you do right by the customer. Those opinions will help you recommend a different product/service than the customer was looking for - or even a competitor product - because it's the best option.

The other day I took some photo paper from home to print a photo in my office, because I didn't have time to print it at home that morning. My office has a laserjet printer, but my home printer is an inkjet. I needed to print the photo that same day, but as it turns out I forgot my paper on the train, and I went to buy a new ream at a nearby stationery store.

The very helpful Swiss lady who was "selling" me the photo paper (I live in Switzerland) asked me what kind of paper I wanted. I said, white, glossy, photo paper. Then she asked, "Is your printer a laser printer?", and I said: "Yes." (the office one is). But the paper wasn't glossy. I asked her to show me the glossy paper. She said: "The glossy paper is for inkjet printers, and you have a laser printer. I cannot sell you the glossy paper because it will wreck your printer." When I said: "It doesn't matter, let me have a look at this paper for a minute...", she insisted that that was the wrong kind of paper for my printer, and refused to sell it to me.

So I walked out of the store without the paper. I then went to another store and bought my glossy inkjet paper, and printed the photo at home.

Point of the story: Sometimes, the customer KNOWS what he wants. Your "doing right by the customer" assumes that you know better than the customer. You know his needs, his plans, and his constraints better than he knows himself.

If you go by "doing right by the customer", then perhaps you better think twice lest your customer instead considers you arrogant, and decides to just shop at another store where he is not forbidden to buy exactly what he wants, and you lose a customer forever...

After many years working in marketing/sales and customer service, particularly call centres, I think the customer is always right has provided a platform for cheap, horrid, expect everything for nothing, cheating, loudest complaining customers to put unreasonable requests on business. For instance, a man bought the cheapest sale airfare from a discount airline where he clearly had to tick the terms and conditions befoer putting his payment in. He claimed he was a best man in a wedding but only left the night before the wedding. When he was late and missed the flight, he expected the airline to compensate him. He abused staff and refused any other suggestions (which involved him spending more) and tried to act as if there was a conspiracy against him. The people who wear clothes and then return them is another example of this type of customer. I think sometimes it is best to choose your customers (when possible). The mass public are horrid.

Moral issues are certainly a concern, but I like your adjustment to the the phrase for a different reason: customers often want contradictory things. They may not (and in most cases, shouldn't) understand the full sweep of issues that go into satisfying their needs. As designers of experiences that attempt to do that, it is up to us to figure out how to reconcile opposing needs, rather than react to each in isolation.

"Doing right" by customers nicely captures the thinking we have to do to craft a quality experience.

As an e-learning designer, I get paid to tell customers that they are sometimes wrong. It is one of the ways I most add value - saying "you think you want to teach x, but let me show you why that won't have the greatest impact for your business; you really want to teach y."

I often argue with a friend whose company is known to sometimes be abrasive in its assertions of "you think you want to use lectures to teach content x, but what you need to do to have meaningful impact is use learning by doing to teach content y." She quite rightly argues that if they give in and use lectures, it will kill their brand, which is all about delivering the experiences and impact that can only be achieved with learning by doing. What I realized in talking with her is that the issue is really one of delivery and expectation setting. First, setting the clear expectation that they only deliver learning by doing experiences and second finding ways to make the conversation more collaborative/constructive and less confrontational.

So, maybe it's A) set clear expectations with your customers about your vision of right and your adherence to the vision B) As a corollary to A, follow star-chef Charlie Trotter's advice to choose your customers carefully, and C) perhaps most importantly, find ways to make the customer feel that their input and satisfaction are high priorities, even when you are disagreeing.

I was at the paint store this past weekend and a customer came in to pickup a quart of custom mixed paint, but decided that it wasn't the right color - even though it was the color she ordered. The manager did not make her pay for it, even though there was a sign on the wall saying "custom colors are not returnable."

Since I was standing in line, I pointed out to the customer and the manager, that this sort of behavior raises prices for all of us.
They both realized that, but neither wanted to be responsible for making a decision.

It's just a lazy pronouncement. As an experience designer of over 15 years I have learned that this sentence is mostly used as a way to get employees to work harder but with no real direction or leadership. It makes people feel better but acomplishes nothing. If I hear a client utter that sentence I ask for an explanation of what that phrase means for them, and how it's relevant to their business or product.
Great post as usual. Thank you.

In healthcare, there has never been a phrase that quite translates to "the patient is always right." But your new distinction works well in this setting. But how do you take a catch phrase and make it a living breathing reality. Here's a good post by Cleveland Clinic Chief Experience Officer, Dr. James Merlino on how to make improvement real. http://wp.me/pAdE7-ce

I do a lot of design work for a local sign shop. The owner and I have gone 'round and 'round over this subject. He's much more concerned with doing what the customer wants, at any one moment. I call it the "Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome". He'd rather send the customer out the door with whatever they've asked for, no matter how poorly designed it is. I believe that you must take the customer's best interests to heart, and educate them if need be on the differences between "what they want" and "what they need". Thanks for the post I am in total agreement.

Your comparisons are confusing, because in Las Vegas, the customer is not the one doing the gambling, it is the casino. The gambler is the casino's customer, not the slot maker.

Your pharmacy example also makes no sense. Why would a pharmacy be selling crystal meth?

Thanks for this thoughtful article. I have worked so many years in retail and that was the mantra. Seeing it questioned from an ethical point of view is refreshing and gives the types of jobs that create a 'customer experience' a much broader and more intelligent approach.

I learned a long time ago that the customer is often wrong. That they often lack the domain knowledge to accurately describe what they want. As the subject matter expert it is your duty to ask the right questions, search for their intent and help them realize their actual want or problem.

In short, what the customer asks for and what the customer wants aren't always the same thing.

My problem with both versions of the phrase is the word "always" - anything that unwavering invites unrealistic customer expectations and poor justifications on the part of the service provider (Stephanie said lazy and Thomas summed it up as irresponsible)

Leaving that bit aside for a moment though...

"the customer is always right" could translate to "do anything to get their business". I don't wish to known for that kind of service. I'd so much rather turn down work (choose my customers as other posters have said) than be associated with poor quality - I know when times are hard though, that's not always an option. But sometimes it's better to do right for yourself and your business. Customers have been known to respect that and return to you later in a more reasonable state of mind.

"the customer is always right" could translate to "make the customer always *think* they're right". That gives more wiggle room but there's an art to that.

And the modified "doing right by the customer is always right" sounds gracious but agree with Stacia that it can border on arrogance if not handled properly. Agree with Bryan that probing for need behind the need is important so if that's what "doing right by the customer" means, cool. But in the end, the customer's underlying needs may just be crappy or not as lofty and noble as you'd like them to be. In that case, "doing right by the customer" starts to seems holier-than-thou.

Nice post - enjoyed reading it and everyone's comments.

Dealing with customer complaints is sometimes difficult. This is made doubly so by being specifically in what is considered a customer-service based field. Personally, I really hate the "customer is always right rule" and tell everybody working with me there's only one rule, "Use your best judgement to solve customer complaints."

You'd be surprised how well this works, when there's no set rules, but everybody is instructed to use their brain.

Will - http://www.tagmyphone.com/

Very true. I think it's more important to know when to tell a customer no than it is to know when to say yes. Even if it doesn't deal with morality like your example, sometimes the client's ideas are harmful to their own business and it's our responsibility to tell them.

As I work on doing right by an upset customer, I can usually earn serious trust by showing them what I've done to prevent the problem from recurring: change the wording in your sign/ad, stop offering a product until the problem is resolved, take their comments back to the design team, etc.

If you show a customer that you are genuinely trying to do right by future customers, they'll feel good about their future as your customer -and- feel like they've made a positive influence on your organization.

This is also why customer service over the phone is so limited -- phone support usually doesn't have the authority to make real changes, nor enough time on the phone with the customer to show them what changes will be made.