Is the customer always right?

bmwguy

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was not true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

MadsL

bmwguy wrote: »

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was not true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

...and... you are fired.

EyeSight

No obviously but some people are so up themselves they don't realise it. Although they always have the best reaction when you stand up to them.

They are up there with the idiots who try to haggle because the afternoon show had an "expert" on who told the audience they should always haggle and it always works. If said shop does not give you a discount for haggling, respond with "do you know it's a recession?"

kneemos

I pay your wages....don't forget.

krudler

Christ no, usually the other way around. The ones who are in the right are usually the most level headed, the ones who THINK they're in the right are the most illogical abusive people you'll ever encounter. Working with the public would make you want to live on a desert island.

see the Cries of Retail thread for more :pac:

MadsL

EyeSight wrote: »

No obviously but some people are so up themselves they don't realise it. Although they always have the best reaction when you stand up to them.

They are up there with the idiots who try to haggle because the afternoon show had an "expert" on who told the audience they should always haggle and it always works. If said shop does not give you a discount for haggling, respond with "do you know it's a recession?"

Haggle...hmm.

Price match. Damn straight. I laughed when I saw the price of a memory card, and said come on "you can buy that for $20 online". Quick chat with a manager, $21.55, $40 cheaper.

squirestarter

The customer always being right is purely a western commercial construct

For example in Cuba, or worse, North Korea...the customer is not only wrong but needs to be told what to buy

Earthhorse

The customer is always righteous.

elperello

No the customer is not always right but he/she is always the customer.
If you can't get your head around that concept take a new path in employment.

krudler

kneemos wrote: »

I pay your wages....don't forget.

The last bastion of the desperate, along with "Joe Duffy will hear about this" or "I'll have your job".

weldoninhio

bmwguy wrote: »

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was nEAot true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

The customer is always right was a company slogan, your man who opened Selfridges used it in his Canadian shops i think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_customer_is_always_right

No more relevant in the real world than Just Do It (nike) or Its in the Game (EA Sports)

The Glass Key

"The customer is always right - until they leave the shop" as my boss once told me.

EyeSight

MadsL wrote: »

Haggle...hmm.

Price match. Damn straight. I laughed when I saw the price of a memory card, and said come on "you can buy that for $20 online". Quick chat with a manager, $21.55, $40 cheaper.

From my time working in a shop, if i ever gave in to a customer haggling I would be fired.

Price match is a different thing and usually the shops that do it have policies from head office.
In fairness though asking once is fair enough, but to keep it up and claiming the recession is bad is just being annoying

krudler

EyeSight wrote: »

From my time working in a shop, if i ever gave in to a customer haggling I would be fired.

Price match is a different thing and usually the shops that do it have policies from head office.
In fairness though asking once is fair enough, but to keep it up and claiming the recession is bad is just being annoying

When I worked for hmv people would try haggle all the time, you'd scan whatever it was they were buying and give them the price and usually get "will ya take tu-wenty cash dere now?" Uhhh, no, it's 45 quid, regardless of how you pay. "ahhh ya can do bettur dan dat now so ya can" gtfo you cabbage smelling buffoon.

Wereghost

bmwguy wrote: »

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was not true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

If he was being verbally abusive then he stopped being a customer. Still, those infants are a tiny minority of society, and encounters like those can be instructive for future scenarios.

120_Minutes

Customers Lie.

It was like that when i bought it. (no it wasnt)

I bought this here (no you didnt)

I only have it about a month (it's two years old)

I know my rights (you actually dont)

etc etc etc....

bmwguy

To the replies saying I'll get fired or get a new employment path, thanks I know its AH but I wont get fired, I'm the financial director of the company so I do have a different employment path!
I'll give you the situation, he bought a part from us for about 100 euro which was posted around lunchtime today. He called at about 4 pm saying he needed it quicker than the post would get it to him and demanded that I personally drive it to him (about 15 miles) and he would post the other one back when he got it. His rationale for this was that he bought a large product from us 3 years ago (about 10 grand). I basically told him nothing of the sort was happening.

Tin Foil Hat

bmwguy wrote: »

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was not true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

"The customer is always right", is a soundbite. Nothing more. Unfortunately, a certain brand of childish, entitled arsehole has taken it as fact.

josip

bmwguy wrote: »

To the replies saying I'll get fired or get a new employment path, thanks I know its AH but I wont get fired, I'm the financial director of the company so I do have a different employment path!
I'll give you the situation, he bought a part from us for about 100 euro which was posted around lunchtime today. He called at about 4 pm saying he needed it quicker than the post would get it to him and demanded that I personally drive it to him (about 15 miles) and he would post the other one back when he got it. His rationale for this was that he bought a large product from us 3 years ago (about 10 grand). I basically told him nothing of the sort was happening.

It comes down to a judgement call I think. You need to do a Wayne Rooney type instantaneous calculation of the likelihood of repeat business, the margin on that, when it will happen, and how much of that you would ever personally get versus having to suck it up and give them what they want even if they're obnoxious. It's easier to decide if you're a business owner and you'll get most/all of the future profit.

Stained Class

When you're selling something & need the money, this is true.

If your customer descends into the realms of personal insults or is just looking for a row just for the sake of it.

Deck him.

It softens their cough fairly quickly, I find.

tomwaterford

Stained Class wrote: »

When you're selling something & need the money, this is true.

If your customer descends into the realms of personal insults or is just looking for a row just for the sake of it.

Deck him.

It softens their cough fairly quickly, I find.

have you decked many customers???:eek:

bop1977

We had a customer ring us and bark down the phone "where the funk is my part".

On hearing the swear word he was hung up on.
Our manager was informed, who then rang his manager.
First thing next morning we got a grovelling apology.

Moral of this rambling story is that no the customer is not always right.

Pumpkinseeds

No they are not always right, I blame the Americans with their 'the customer is king' bulls*it.

blingrhino

Not even the customer believes this cliche I think !

average hero

If a customer or a member of staff has to utter, ponder or otherwise come across these words - then no, the customer is not right.

Stained Class

tomwaterford wrote: »

have you decked many customers???:eek:

Don't make a habit out of it TBH.

The odd one I decked thanked me for it.

Snapped them out of theirselves.

cat_dog

No, but sometimes you have to be nice/accomodating so you don't lose customers

Tigger

I don't lose bad customers I know where I buried their remains

The Backwards Man

The trick is getting the customer to believe they are always right whilst still riding them sideways.

There's an old saying 'If you have the name for rising early you can lie until dinnertime'

The art of selling is a dying one, sadly.

guppy

I was in a Swarovski shop a while ago buying a leaving gift for someone when an auld one came in screaming about something. The clerk dealing with her tried to tell her about the no return policy on earrings, but the customer screamed and screamed. The manager was helping me and exused herself to step in. In the end she authorised a full refund. I was not impressed at all.

Tldr, scream a lot, it works.

tomwaterford

Stained Class wrote: »

Don't make a habit out of it TBH.

The odd one I decked thanked me for it.

Snapped them out of theirselves.

WTF where do you work??

not a bouncer by any chance???

josip

guppy wrote: »

I was in a Swarovski shop a while ago buying a leaning gift for someone when an auld one came in screaming about something. The clerk dealing with her tried to tell her about the no return policy on earrings, but the customer screamed and screamed. The manager was helping me and exused herself to step in. In the end she authorised a full refund. I was not impressed at all.

Tldr, scream a lot, it works.

I wasn't there so I might be reading this wrong but it sounds to me like the manager did a good job as long as she explained to the clerk afterwards her reasons for allowing it.
In a place like a Swarovski shop you don't want to have a disgruntled customer scaring off other potential customers.
I once left a bike shop because while I was waiting there was a protracted dispute over a warranty because the other party had gotten it serviced 2 months late. It came across as petty and I decided I didn't want to deal with such an inflexible business, even if they were in the right according to their Ts&Cs.

Stained Class

guppy wrote: »

I was in a Swarovski shop a while ago buying a leaving gift for someone when an auld one came in screaming about something. The clerk dealing with her tried to tell her about the no return policy on earrings, but the customer screamed and screamed. The manager was helping me and exused herself to step in. In the end she authorised a full refund. I was not impressed at all.

Tldr, scream a lot, it works.

I hate this attitude.

The squeaky wheel gets the most oil theory.

Loads of people out there are pure arseholes cos they get away with it time after time.

I wouldn't put up with it from my own kids & I surely wouldn't put up with it a chancer from the street.

Technoprisoner

had an irrate customer the other day. He had ordered a part and came into to collect it. When we searched for the part it could not be found and he threw a wobbly... When we did a bit of probing it was discovered that the customer had ordered the part from another branch. Being polite while he had a rant we offered to have the part collected so he could pick it up in our branch. When we told him we could have it in 3 hours he started shouting about having someone waiting to fit the part. when i explained it was him who had ordered from the wrong branch he stormed off out of the shop and never came back


moral of the story is that sometimes the customer cant even phone the correct shop...and some can be just stuck up their own asses

Stained Class

tomwaterford wrote: »

WTF where do you work??

not a bouncer by any chance???

Ah no. I wouldn't be big enough for that.

I'm self employed.

Garden Centre. Some of them Pensioners can be very naughty.

Wander 'round the place & wonder why they can't take the stock out for free.:eek:

You question them & they tell you that they did something in the 'War'.

Still, you have to be cruel to be kind.;)

guppy

josip wrote: »

I wasn't there so I might be reading this wrong but it sounds to me like the manager did a good job as long as she explained to the clerk afterwards her reasons for allowing it.
In a place like a Swarovski shop you don't want to have a disgruntled customer scaring off other potential customers.
I once left a bike shop because while I was waiting there was a protracted dispute over a warranty because the other party had gotten it serviced 2 months late. It came across as petty and I decided I didn't want to deal with such an inflexible business, even if they were in the right according to their Ts&Cs.

I'm not great at explaining myself at the best of times!

No, the customer wanted to return pierced earrings, a complete no-no due to hygiene reasons. The clerk was standing her ground on it while the customer screamed in her face (the clerk was very professional about it).

The manager intervened in the nasty situation and was abused herself with intermittent cries of "I know my rights". Customer was offered a credit note, it wasn't good enough. After more screaming the manager just said "give her the refund" and returned to me, apologised and made the €200+ sale I was there for anyway.

It lowered swarovski's name in my mind as I love their jewellery and I trust them to do the right thing. That was not the right thing, it was proving to someone that screaming at sales staff works.

Fair play to you for sticking to your guns, that was a different situation. I've walked out of shops myself in the past due to pathetic customer service, once when I really, really wanted a specific ring as a birthday present but after 2 minutes standing waiting for attention from one of the two staff yapping to each other and ignoring us, I would rather have swallowed that money than give it to them.

bnt

Technology customers are the worst, they don't seem to get that they have a part to play in the effective use of whatever gadget they bought. It starts with buying the right device to do what you need to do. Some folks buy expensive stuff withouht knowing what it does and doesn't do.

If you buy a Ford Focus, you don't call Ford when you run out of petrol, or can't find your destination on the map, do you? Or threaten to send the car back to Ford because your garage is too small? Yet the same customers seem to lose all sense when faced with a bit of technology that they could understand if they opened their minds a little. :rolleyes:

martinedwards

I work in HMPO passport call centre.

the fastest you can renew a child's UK passport is 7 days.

I explained this repeatedly to a woman who had booked a holiday without checking if her kid's passports were valid (daft bat)

after about the 7th time (seriously!) she said she'd get her husband to call later.

certainly madam, but he'll get exactly the same answer............

when I worked in restaurants, the boss said the customer ISN'T always right, but you never win an argument with a customer.

wisdom.

bogwalrus

Two opinions. I used to own a shop and put up with all sorts of customers. I really do not like the fact that some people forget you are also a human and treat you like Crap. I think the customer is always right mentality feeds this division which is bad.

Second opinion is from a customer view. I had an altercation a few years ago with a garage. The garage wasted a few days of my time because they did not fix a few bits that I said in order to pass NCT so had to do test 3times. They were in no way apologetic or acknowledging it was their fault and wanted to charge for the third bit of service I needed. I demanded they did it for free as they had already cost me money.

So it is situations like this that make me realise shops just want your money so no point in trying to be friends but get the best deal you can even if it pisses someone off.

sawdoubters

I can see why your not in customer service

ted1

Dad was a hotel manager in several up market hotels and the best advice he gave his staff was
" the customer should always feel that he is right, but seldom is actually right"

Santa Cruz

The customer is always right but don't let that stop you ripping him off as often as you can.

MonstaMash

krudler wrote: »

When I worked for hmv people would try haggle all the time, you'd scan whatever it was they were buying and give them the price and usually get "will ya take tu-wenty cash dere now?" Uhhh, no, it's 45 quid, regardless of how you pay. "ahhh ya can do bettur dan dat now so ya can" gtfo you cabbage smelling buffoon.

Shhh...loss prevention might hear

Cedrus

Going in to a high street shop and saying "I can get that cheaper on line,, in another shop,, etc." Is like going in to a nice restaurant and saying"I could get that steak for €3 in Lidl, why are you charging €25?".

Sod off and eat your steak in Lidl so.

Penny Tration

Whenever people try to haggle with me (i already give people discounts if they buy more than one item!), they always trot out the 'I can get it cheaper online' line.

I point out that our online store has one staff member, and no rent costs because the stock is held in another shop. Here, we have two staff, rent and electricity to pay. If that doesn't work, I say 'ok well go get it online so' with a smile. 9 times out of ten, they buy it from me.

Cupcake_Crisis

God no. From years working in retail, and from being a bit of a chancer of a customer myself I can assure you that the customer is wrong about 53% of the time.

zcorpian88

That saying is just thrown at you on induction day, you make them believe they are always right is all, basically you just have to keep them sweet to the best of your ability until you see a manager in your sights, then it's his/her problem.

Worked in Dunnes Stores for 2 years, nothing aggravated me more than having to suck up to customers. Would rather go hungry than work for them again.

Really have no idea how I didn't punch any customers in the face!

miss no stars

martinedwards wrote: »

when I worked in restaurants, the boss said the customer ISN'T always right, but you never win an argument with a customer.

wisdom.

I worked in a restaurant and took the approach of the customer is always right and KILLED them with kindness. Was always very funny to see. They'd huff and puff about something not being right and I'd just say "Oh I'm so sorry, let me bring that back to the kitchen for you". Don't care if they actually forgot to ask for the sauce on the side, if you don't argue in a situation like that it's genuinely funny because they are so puffed up and red and angry and at a complete loss as to what to do without the argument.

Oh and haggling can work sometimes, but not in chains of high street shops.

dd972

Friends, family and humanity in general are marvelous

Joe and Josephine Public are f**ing geebags. I've always envied people who have jobs where the nature of the work makes no demands on their personal space, Lorry Driver's or Tradespeople for example, sure they have their own bugbears but in comparison to being a 'grief monkey' for the public they seemingly have jobs where they go in, do their days graft and go home.

zcorpian88

miss no stars wrote: »

Oh and haggling can work sometimes, but not in chains of high street shops.

Haggling is for the market place, never for High Street chains, one bellend came into me one day and talked to me like I was some stall owner in Baghdad, he wanted a pair of shoes that were typical cheap Dunnes Stores shoes, they were 16 euro. He wanted them for 10 euro. He insisted on them for ages before I asked for my manager to see would he let them off for 10 (which I knew he wouldn't) but he chucked the shoes in a basket beside my checkout and walked out in a huff.

This guy wasn't stuck for money either, f**kin snooty Brown Thomas head on him.

RogerWilco1982

kneemos wrote: »

I pay your wages....don't forget.

Can I have a raise please?