Is the customer always right? What every business should consider

A typical job interview question and a question all businesses instill in their employees. There is no right or wrong answer to this ever popular question. It simply depends on the scenario or context that it applies to. Take for example if you are dealing with a customer who is clearly in the wrong, do you still consider the notion that they are right or that customers are always right? That is something that will be discussed in this post.

In such a situation it is vital for the person dealing with the customer to maintain a professional level of composure and despite knowing that the customer is wrong and they are right, does the serving party still need to bear in mind that the customer is always right? Some may say; how do you do that? It is important to understand that sometimes people do not follow instructions well.

It may be a simple case of not reading an advertisement well or a more serious one. E.g. in a situation such as a translation agency offering Russian translation services or Chinese translation services and you are offering a special promotional discount whereby the customer has to purchase a particular product in order to qualify for the special promotional discount on offer, but the customer having misread the promotional details or “small print as they call it” is unhappy that they do not qualify for the discount, it easy to pinpoint where the customer is wrong and the issue would usually be resolved there and then.

However in a situation more complex where there is no quantitative data to back up your companies point against the customers, it takes much more effort to resolve the issue at hand. This can be seen as a waste of time and is something that is overlooked by managers at times.

In such cases it is fundamental to ensure that the customer does not feel as though they are being belittled or their point of view is being undermined but to empathize with the customer and make them feel as though they have not made a mistake will in most cases work as an advantage to your company.

This will make the customer know that they are in the wrong without you explicitely stating that (and despite them not admitting it in most cases); however they will be more likely to use your services again because of the excellent customer service they received. We as human beings do not want to be told we are wrong and in most cases do not like to admit we are wrong. That is just human nature!

When answering the question ‘is the customer always right’, one cannot simply say yes or no without explanation. It simply depends on the situation at present and the way in which the serving party handles the situation.

For companies, training employees to effectively manage situations such as the ones raised earlier in this post is an invaluable step in ensuring customer satisfaction is met. This can be the fine line between keeping a customer and losing one. We all know the value of customer retention and many researchers have noted that it is more valuable to retain a customer than to get a new one.

No matter how popular your products may be with the public, if you do not provide a good service, customers will not feel valued and your company could be in deep trouble as customers will most likely decide not repurchase from you. On average a customer tells around 10 people when they experience negative customer service from a company but hardly tells anyone when they do experience positive customer service.

This alone should be something that managers in a company should bear in mind and this should be communicated effectively to supervisors and also the workers who interact with the customer at the point of service delivery. If conducted appropriately, there is no doubt that customer satisfaction will increase as well as sales and profitability.