Customer Is Always Right

Steyr

Anybody have those people who insist that they ( The Customer ) is always right?

Black Swan

Well, I have a little Johnson & Johnson stock, and the annual report they sent to me has a credo that shows the customer (GP supplied and medical patient treated) as coming first. What's right for the patient, is right for the corporation that supplies the equipment, supplies and drugs? If you were a patient, would you want it any other way?

cozmik

Steyr wrote:

Anybody have those people who insist that they ( The Customer ) is always right?

Do you mean have or hate?

JaysusMacfeck

Always right me boll0x. The only people that say this have never worked in the service industry.

de5p0i1er

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

Always right me boll0x. The only people that say this have never worked in the service industry.

I know a few ppl like that and they have worked in the service industry, they felt they were been riped off and they said it.

Hobbes

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

Always right me boll0x. The only people that say this have never worked in the service industry.

I always thought it was "The customer must always believe they are right".

Pighead

Steyr wrote:

Anybody have those people who insist that they ( The Customer ) is always right?

Do you mean is or are?

Sleepy

I work in IT so for me it's "The user is always absolutely clueless".

Nalz

Sleepy wrote:

I work in IT so for me it's "The user is always absolutely clueless".

yep the user is an idiot when it comes to computer industry.

humanji

Sleepy wrote:

I work in IT so for me it's "The user is always absolutely clueless".

Yeah, but, as some who's been in IT, I've noticed that "the admin is always a lazy, grumpy, condesending git"

seamus

Hobbes wrote:

I always thought it was "The customer must always believe they are right".

Well, that's the spirit of the saying. For some reason some people don't understand the saying and take it literally, then get all hot under the collar because quite clearly the customer is not always right.

However, it's a business ethos that if a customer comes to you with a complaint, even if their complaint is mistaken, incorrect or just plain fraudulent, you should still treat it as if it were a genuine mistake on your behalf. Obviously that's not saying that if someone demands €50k from you because they claim you did something you didn't, then you roll over.

Think about all the times you made complaints to companies. We've all done it at one point or another. And we've all had the company who will argue with you tooth-and-nail to avoid their responsibility. We've also all had the company who accept and rectify the complaint without fuss.
Which companies made the better impression? Which companies made you happy to continue purchasing from them?

That's the spirit of the saying.

layke

Who mentioned complaints though? I've heard far too often "I want xx for free with my purchase or i'm not buying for you". Followed by a sly smug look to their companion to say "look at how good I am at negotiating". After this they recieve two fingers from myself they buy anyway.

Man i'm so glad those college years where I had to work ****ty rep jobs are gone. I'll never miss dealing with the Irish public.

WhiteWashMan

oh seamus, bless your little heart for trying to educate.

i think there should be a saying, 'the boardsie complaintant usually doesnt understand the whole situation'.

Mossy Monk

from my experience i find that the customer is nearly always an overdemanding ****

there are a small number who are right. the most of them are retards

User45701

well its been a war for me with silvios because they always get my food wrong and i cant ****ing stand it, every single time me and my mates order its always mine thats wrong and then try try to charge delivery charge for the driver to come out with the right food or sometimes they wont even bring the food a 2nd time!!!! the bitch said no the driver has to go home bollox there **** up they have to fix it, so i ended the whole thing i told her to come to my house and i will give her the food back and she can give me the money back

she did and i ordered from mizonis - happy

years of shight from silvios there not worth it not to mention how often the police are called to the house where the staff live in firehouse

Mrs_Doyle

From age 16-19 I worked in Penneys, in the Omni Park.
I used to work on the customer service desk, and so I had to deal with a load of HowRya's, who would scream the shop down just to get a £1 refund (seriously).

One day this girl comes in, she was about 21/22, attractive and very well spoken.

She said she had bought an underwear set and after just one wear the bra had completely lost its shape.

She showed me her receipt, and removed the bra from her bag, to show me the damage.
Yes, the bra had indeed lost its shape. It also had been worn more then once, had greyed in colour and had sweat stains on the under arm.

I had expected something more form this girl, as she gave the appearance of being rather well to do, so I was a bit shocked that she would have the neck to bring the shoddy garment in to begin with, let alone demand a refund. (I think it was only worth a 5er or something).

Anyhow, I told her I wouldn't be issuing a refund as the garment was unsanitary and had clearly been worn more then once.

She kicked up such a fuss that I finally decided to get my manager to deal with her.
At this stage, for me, it was a matter of principal. As far as I was concerned she was a dirty bitch who was just chancing her luck.

However, my manager couldn't have been arsed arguing with her and told me to just give her her money back, to get rid of her.

I was mortified, but what could I do.

(The whole time she was banging on about how the customer was always right)
So i put the refund through the till, and as I was about to hand her her change she says, "I suppose you'll be wanting the matching briefs" and pulls the offending garment from her bag and places it on the counter.

I am not joking you, she placed worn, soiled, underwear in the counter, took her money, and proceeded to walk away.

I was actually speechless, but the woman who had been waiting behind her in the queue had no problem finding her words.

"Ya dirty, fcuking, jumped up bitch" she said, "Security, here, don't let her leave the shop before she takes her filthy dirty fcuking knickers with her".

Security guard comes over and I tell him that yes, the girl had indeed left her filthy underwear on the counter.

Now in the Omni the customer service desk is at the back of the store, so the girl had yet to make her way out of the shop.

Our security guard rang outside, and just as she set foot outside the store 2 centre guards asked her, politely, to return to the customer service desk as she had left something behind.
She was escorted back to the desk where she, without saying a word, put the knickers back in her bag, turned on her heel, and walked, quickly, form the shop!

No such thing as a graceful exit though, as the woman who had been waiting behind her told everyone who would listen what she had done, and they all had something to say about it.

Anyhow, that’s my story, I had a few cnut customers in my time, but she was one of the most shocking.

Sleepy

humanji wrote:

Yeah, but, as some who's been in IT, I've noticed that "the admin is always a lazy, grumpy, condesending git"

Yup, that's pretty true too.

Lucky I'm neither a user nor an admin.

I've had so many instances where, even though the customer was completely and utterly in the wrong, I had to place the blame on myself. It's amazing how many customers get hotheaded in these circumstances. Through these things, I've realised something- People are idiots. And you have to forgive them for doing stupid things, because they are idiots.

Sam Vimes

that story made my day mrs doyle

Nevyn

Steyr wrote:

Anybody have those people who insist that they ( The Customer ) is always right?

Nope but the customer deserves due courtesy and to feel that thier comapliant and grieance has been heard.

Sully

Commander Vimes wrote:

that story made my day mrs doyle

Same here! Very good!

mickoneill30

I used to work in Gateway in tech support (nightmare job) and when an call was incoming we could see if it was an Irish or English person ringing. The English calls were always easier to deal with. I actually had an interview a few years later with a customer of Gateways for an admin job and turned it down because I remembered that whenever any PC they bought had a problem it was an emergency of the highest order (that included things like a floppy drive cable being loose). Who wants a stressful job like that.
In that job if you got some knob on screaming that he knew his rights then he got his rights (and nothing more). If you got somebody who was more polite and understood that things go faulty we were way more helpful (things like engineers to the customer or replacement systems when we didn't have to do that).
Before that I worked in Peats, same kind of result. If you came in saying you knew your rights and wanted to speak to a manager then you got your rights (which might not have been what you thought). If you came in friendlier or were a good customer we could always do something.
The customer isn't always right but if they're always polite and respectful (and not dealing with a jobsworth) then they'll get on OK.

DublinWriter

Mrs_Doyle wrote:

Anyhow, that’s my story, I had a few cnut customers in my time, but she was one of the most shocking.

Fantastic story Mrs Doyle.

I hate starting class-warfare, but from my previous life working in pubs and security I found that the biggest troublemakers were middle-class. Go figure.

My take on 'The Customer is always right" is that that saying should always be prefixed with "If a profitable transaction is to be made then...".

cornbb

My current job thankfully doesn't involve dealing with the public. I used to work in a call centre and felt the company I worked for might as well have been anally violating its customers given the way we had to treat them (insurance industry, who would have guessed it?)

On the other hand a lot of customers were clueless, ignorant, rude morons regardless of how well you would treat them. So no, the customer is not always right, but they do deserve to be treated well as long as they do nothing to indicate they don't deserve to be.

abetarrush

I hate stupid customers

They come back either with no receipt or a present from "santy" with their kids beside them

If they dont get wha they want, they go on a consumer rights rants

Luckily I know the consumer rights so I can say, Actually, your wrong, so go fxck yerself

Some girl brought back a phone that "wasnt" working. It had physical damage, and was apparently freezing a lot. She had no receipt, didnt have the game she got free with the phone, and said all she got in the box was the phone and charger. I said i cudnt change it so she went home and got the Game and the manuals etc, that she never got in the first place!
So i didnt return the item, said we'd send it to be repaired but she didnt come back

People are idiots

stepbar

abetarrush wrote:

I hate stupid customers

They come back either with no receipt or a present from "santy" with their kids beside them

If they dont get wha they want, they go on a consumer rights rants

Luckily I know the consumer rights so I can say, Actually, your wrong, so go fxck yerself

Some girl brought back a phone that "wasnt" working. It had physical damage, and was apparently freezing a lot. She had no receipt, didnt have the game she got free with the phone, and said all she got in the box was the phone and charger. I said i cudnt change it so she went home and got the Game and the manuals etc, that she never got in the first place!
So i didnt return the item, said we'd send it to be repaired but she didnt come back

People are idiots

Whatever about "stupid customers", there are plenty of "stupid customer support" people. Was standing in the Q for the customer service desk in AIB, O'Connell St last week. Got up to the counter was doing the bit of business I had to do. At this stage it was lunch time and it was quite busy. Polish guy comes in beside me. Yer man ignores him.... then finshes with me and ate him out of it. The poor chap was only wondering where / when he could open up an account. My jaw dropped, "eh" I said looking at him at amazement. and before I could say another word he's practacally apologising for his behaviour. I felt like saying quit the day job, ur obviously not cut out for customer service with an attitude like that. Also whats the crack with people in shops, are they not able to say hello / make eye contact / smile / not act like a ****in mechanised robot? So ignorant. So there you go people are not stupid all the time.

randylonghorn

cornbb wrote:

no, the customer is not always right, but they do deserve to be treated well as long as they do nothing to indicate they don't deserve to be.

Spot on!

No, I don't believe the customer is always right, some customers are a pain in the butt, but these days in Ireland I get the feeling that the prevailing ethos is that "the customer is always wrong"!

Sad Professor

Well as already pointed out the phrase isn't supposed to be taken literally but was probably originally used by businesses when training staff how to deal with customer complaints. The problem is it some how "got out" to the general public who now, sadly, take it seriously.

I work part-time in the service industry and always take the path of least resistance when dealing with customers, i.e. just give them what they want and to hell with the "rules" management tell you. In my experience managers when faced with a customer will usually do this anyway, making you look like a fool in process, even though you were just doing as you were told.

nlgbbbblth

People who say / think 'the customer is always right' deserve to be killed in front of their families.

Make sure you take the spirit of that comment rather than its literal interpretation.

Kintarō Hattori

The OP said that he doesn't like people who say 'The Customer is always right'. Where did he say he didn't treat them with respect or process their complain as he should. Just because he and others have stated that they don't like people who waltz in and bellow this phrase at you does not mean that they don't do their job properly.

I've been working in retail for 5 years now and have met some truely lovely people, some horrendous individuals and some strange people.

A few months back a woman in her 50's walked into the shop and asked if she could return something. I asked to see her receipt and was shocked to see that the goods were 8 years old!!!!! Granted they hadn't been used, but I mentioned to her that there was nothing wrong with the items and that although she didn't need them that we weren't obliged to take them back as there was nothing wrong with them.
She asked me if we wouldn't have some use for them. I pointed out to her that A> they were bought longer ago than I had been working in the shop which is a long enough time and that B> they were bought pre-euro.

These two facts didn't stop her though and she kept at it again and again.

I can tell you another one about a guy in Wicklow, a TFT and his involvement with us and the manufacturer. He was highly unpleasant. Let me know if you want to hear it...


I never assume the customer is always right, nor do I assume that they are wrong. I ALWAYS listen to what they have to say and base my actions on that.

Cake Fiend

Thaedydal wrote:

Nope but the customer deserves due courtesy and to feel that thier comapliant and grieance has been heard.

Only if they're courteous in their complaint in the first place.

Nevyn

Nope.
If they become uncivil or start out uncivil and if they swear at you which is verbal abuse you can refuse to deal with them and if needed have security remove them.

Rebeller

I think the whole "customer service" problem stems from the fact that most companies nowadays hide behind minimum wage, powerless, badly trained staff.

Whereas before the person behind the counter (or at the other end of the phone) would have the authority and independence to act on their own and resolve a genuine customer complaint using their own initiative, today restrictive illogical procedure and policy has to always be followed. Every act has to be double checked and authorised by a manager or supervisor. Companies want to dicate from on high every aspect of the day to day running of the business instead of leaving it to well trained staff (with the minimum of supervision) to use their brains and sort out any difficulties. I'm not blaming the front-line staff; I blame the clueless, megalomaniac managers!

This is especially true in the soul destroying call-centre industry.

The feeling that the person you are talking to/dealing with does not have the authority or resources to resolve your complaint himself/herself is the major cause of frustration and anger on the part of customers.

Upper management is happy to take the large pay packets but are unwilling to deal with the consequences of their "in the interests of the company" decisions.

ArphaRima

As the customer, I find I never make unreasonable demands. I constantly wonder about my logic. I always seem to see middle aged housewives screaming at the top of their lungs about some non-existent injustice, and managers fleeing for cover, and throwing goods and cash at them. I could never do that. For me it would be security and the door. I could never work in any job where if my training I was told to do something, that under pressure my superior decided not to back me up when I was right. It would be soul destroying.
All systems have exceptions, and people deserve favours and breaks where possible. Its the screamers I dislike. Those people who demand what is not theirs to demand.

Steyr

Ive witnessed people break down to tears in front of me at the Customer Service ( Im not on it ) over mundane pathetic things that you just wouldnt get out of bed for. I have personally had people scream at me for something not being available due to either bad orders or just not available from the company and they still dont believe me when i asked them if they wanted me to check for them if said item was inside as it was not on sale.

I also know of people in the same area and when they give up with the customers they either just walk off or produce the orders sheet to show the customers it was on sale and is gone and wont be back until delivery.

StupidLikeAFox

From a man whos been on both sides of the counter, staff/customer service people/shop assistants arent always angels either. AN HONOURABLE MENTION here goes to the three or four peroxide fckers who work in the shop in heuston station. Poor girls.


Personnally i would love to work in a call centre jus for the the craic, see whats thrown up in front of me and what sort of people call me. If anyone knows where i could get a good enough paying summer job in one let me know!

Sad Professor

Rebeller wrote:

I think the whole "customer service" problem stems from the fact that most companies nowadays hide behind minimum wage, powerless, badly trained staff.

Whereas before the person behind the counter (or at the other end of the phone) would have the authority and independence to act on their own and resolve a genuine customer complaint using their own initiative, today restrictive illogical procedure and policy has to always be followed. Every act has to be double checked and authorised by a manager or supervisor. Companies want to dicate from on high every aspect of the day to day running of the business instead of leaving it to well trained staff (with the minimum of supervision) to use their brains and sort out any difficulties. I'm not blaming the front-line staff; I blame the clueless, megalomaniac managers!

This is especially true in the soul destroying call-centre industry.

The feeling that the person you are talking to/dealing with does not have the authority or resources to resolve your complaint himself/herself is the major cause of frustration and anger on the part of customers.

Upper management is happy to take the large pay packets but are unwilling to deal with the consequences of their "in the interests of the company" decisions.

You hit nail on the head there imo. I actually got quite a bit of training in my job but it was all useless stuff like, smile, say hi, ask for a clubcard, smile, offer a clubcard, ask this, ask that, smile, etc etc etc. None which is any use when you get a difficult customer.

Sangre

When customers start making demands they are invariably wrong in my experience of a number of different customer service roles.

Remember I had one guy on the phone in my current part time job in the bank, while completely in the wrong he started claiming his rights and refund demands. He said he was solicitor, he would go to court as he knew his rights. I informed him I also had a law degree and training that said otherwise. That ended that threat.

I've had some unbelievable psychos on the phone with the bank. People screaming at me because they're cheque is taking 5 working days to clear and they've no booze money. Seriously, who doesn't know that?

Although I must say I'm great at never losing the cool or being discourteous to a customer, I find it all most to easy to be fake to the bastards. If they start going on a rant I just tune out and start talking to the person beside me. I don't say anything until they've finished talking for a good few seconds. Then I ask them if they've a specfic query I can help them with etc., Once they know a rant isn't going to be acknowledge they always calm them. Although its much easier to do over the phone.

WhiteWashMan

well, ive been on both sides of the coin in call cetnres, in restraunts, and in retail, and i can catagorically state that simply listening to the person you are talking to, being courteous and not using any blame like language, will get you further than anything else 9 times out of 10.

and a simple 'i know its not your fault, but i do have a problem that i would like your help in solving..' will go further than you think.

its just a shame that most of the people posting here dont seem to see past their own limited experience to understand that the other person isnt always the problem.

Mrs_Doyle

DublinWriter wrote:

Fantastic story Mrs Doyle.

:rolleyes: I wish it was.

seamus

Rebeller wrote:

I think the whole "customer service" problem stems from the fact that most companies nowadays hide behind minimum wage, powerless, badly trained staff.

Well, there's that too, and the fact that employees have very little interest (or exposure) to the bottom line. 99% of the time, if you're speaking to the guy who's running the company in question, or one of the higher-level management, your complaint will be taken seriously and will be dealt with swiftly, regardless of the triviality of the complaint. These guys depend on the bottom line.
Employees at the bottom of the food chain though see none of this. They're going to get paid whether they're nice or flippant to the customer with the complaint, and are given no motivation to resolve issues swiftly. They don't see (either through immaturity or ignorance) the direct link between customer satisfaction and company success. In fact, they couldn't care less about company success.

It's a product of a high-employment economy. The guy who gets fired from UCI today for assaulting a customer, will easily pick up a job in Ster Century tomorrow, so he really doesn't give a **** about the job so long as he gets some cash out of them. Back in my teens, I knew a guy who had 12 jobs in a year (and didn't even work for about 6 months). He basically came in super late (or just didn't bother cos he didn't feel like it), even in his first week, and just arsed around stealing stock and making phone calls. It didn't matter to him, cos he'd get a job elsewhere next week.

cornbb

ColHol wrote:

Personnally i would love to work in a call centre jus for the the craic, see whats thrown up in front of me and what sort of people call me. If anyone knows where i could get a good enough paying summer job in one let me know!

Pressing the mute button and swearing at customers, and very occasionally hanging up on the worst ones, is fun. But its not worth it dude, believe me.

Sad Professor

seamus wrote:

They don't see (either through immaturity or ignorance) the direct link between customer satisfaction and company success. In fact, they couldn't care less about company success.

Of course not, but why should they? It's not like the company passes on it's profits to its employees. The problem is actually the other way around, it's the company which fails to see the link between *employee* satisfaction and company success. If your staff are happy then I do believe customer satisfaction/service won't be a problem. Unfortunately in most places management tends to piss on employees at the lower end of the ladder.

In my current job there has been a whole host of changes recently wherein many new services are now being offered to the customer but it's the staff who have had to make all the sacrifices, under the subtle threat of job loses. The company actually has an excellent record of customer service but I suspect that's all about to go down the tubes shortly because the staff simply aren't happy any more.

WhiteWashMan

cornbb wrote:

Pressing the mute button and swearing at customers, and very occasionally hanging up on the worst ones, is fun. But its not worth it dude, believe me.

and thats exactly the sort of attitude of ****tards all over the world who annoy customers, and then come on here shouting that they get annoyed by the saying 'the customer is always right'.
the problem is yours, not theirs.

if you cant help them, then youre not doing your job right, and if youre not doing it right, why bother being there?

cornbb

WhiteWashMan wrote:

and thats exactly the sort of attitude of ****tards all over the world who annoy customers, and then come on here shouting that they get annoyed by the saying 'the customer is always right'.
the problem is yours, not theirs.

if you cant help them, then youre not doing your job right, and if youre not doing it right, why bother being there?

As I said before, I only did this to the ones that really deserved it. It was harmless stress relief. I always got glowing appraisals etc in that call centre, and I made an effort to help the vast majority of customers as best I could. Unfortunately a minority of people just really don't want to be helped, they want to make your life a misery just because you work in a call centre, or because they feel they've been screwed over. If they actually have been screwed over, 99.9% of the time its the fault of the company or it's policies, not the fault of the agent on the phone. You need to work in one of these places to appreciate this, but again I wouldn't recommend the job to anyone.

in most places management tends to piss on employees at the lower end of the ladder

Agree 100%. In the particular place I worked for, they hired a consultant to find out why so many staff kept leaving. He interviewed everyone and promised that what we said be confidential. And 10 minutes after my interview, my manager called me over to her desk to take issue with some of the truthful and honest things I had told this guy. She had a full transcript of my interview on her screen. So we were lied to by the management and took the full brunt of customer complaints. Horrible stuff.

Victor

stepbar wrote:

Also whats the crack with people in shops, are they not able to say hello / make eye contact / smile / not act like a ****in mechanised robot? So ignorant. So there you go people are not stupid all the time.

It gets difficult saying "hello" for the 400th time in a day.

On average, the customer is wrong more than staff, but quite often management have put staff in an unenviable position.

cornbb

Victor wrote:

It gets difficult saying "hello" for the 400th time in a day.

Or saying "Good morning/afternoon/evening, thank you for calling **** **** **** insurance services, my name is ******, how can I help you?" for the 400th time in a day.

Saying "hello" would get you sacked in the place I worked.

Gordon

cornbb wrote:

Or saying "Good morning/afternoon/evening, thank you for calling **** **** **** insurance services, my name is ******, how can I help you?" for the 400th time in a day.

Saying "hello" would get you sacked in the place I worked.

You also worked in a shop? I've never had someone in a shop saying all that!

cornbb

Ok, I missed that bit. I worked in a call centre. It is easy to say "hello" to a customer in a shop, I agree with that. But rattling off the spiel I listed above felt degrading.

Gordon

cornbb wrote:

Ok, I missed that bit. I worked in a call centre. It is easy to say "hello" to a customer in a shop, I agree with that. But rattling off the spiel I listed above felt degrading.

I used to see it as the thing you had to do when you picked up the phone.

Hear phone
Look at phone
Pick up phone
Put phone to ear
Say big long spiel
Listen to person speaking
Do a little dance

No need to feel degraded about it - we all have to do stuff we don't want to do - that's the definition of "work" isn't it?!

cornbb

Gordon wrote:

No need to feel degraded about it - we all have to do stuff we don't want to do - that's the definition of "work" isn't it?!

Absolutely, but there's work and there's work. My current job is challenging, fulfilling, involves making a positive contribution to society, and there's mutual respect with everyone I come into contact with. The call centre job I'm talking about was none of those things. The phone was attached to my ear. I did not have a choice whether to answer it, it answered itself. A lot of the customers were in stitches after hearing the big long spiel, which was kind of funny I guess.