You know, whoever came up with the saying "The customer is always right" should be beaten with a shovel, salt rubbed in the wounds, and then hung over a fire ant hill while dripping with honey.
The public has taken this statment and ran with it, using it for the sole reason to swindle, lie and cheat businesses out of money and behave like poorly trained baboons to fellow human beings. They use the excuse that businesses have been duping them for years, so of course this gives the customer a free "hypocrite" pass. It's okay for a customer to lie about costs and prices, but if a business does it, the world has come to and end and then the BBB must rear it's ugly head.
I'm confused. When did it become okay for ANYONE to lie or cheat other people? When did it become okay to be rude and discourteous to other people?
Thanks to the press and various organizations trying to stomp out poor customer service and dishonest businesses, the world of customer service has become a huge, hellish lake of putrid fire. Suddenly, all of us customer service reps and company employee's have become incompetant and uncaring. The minute we don't know an answer for something, or refuse to let the lying, cheating customers who don't want to pay their bill to have their way, the start asking for a manager, threaten to have us fired, call us nasty names, etc. They're the customer dammit! They're always right!
NO. You're not.
I've been in the service industry for seven years. I have a whole new perspective on customers and businesses. Customers are NOT always right. Often times, customers create the majority of their problems by NOT listening or even trying to understand what's being said to them. In their little heads, the mantra is playing over and over again, "I'm the customer. I'm always right. I'm the customer. I'm always right," so they miss over half of what they're being told. Just because you believe something should be one way, doesn't make it so. That's just a fact of life. I could hold dog crap in my hand for a year and wish with all my might that it was god, but that ain't gonna happen. Get the point?
Of course, there's no excuse for bad customer service. I can't stand customer service reps who treat customers badly. It pisses me off to no end. And they're out there, those cranky, uncaring jerks who are just trying to get a paycheck. I apologize for them, but customers need to stop thinking that everyone in the service industry is like that. We're not. I, for one, take my customers problems seriously. If someone has a problem with our service, I want to try and make it better. I want them to be happy. I don't like nasty phone calls, and the more happy customers we have, the less of those calls I have to take. However, no matter how honest and concerned I am, I'm constantly faced with "The customer is always right and you are WRONG." My trees are dead because of you. My lawn is brown because of you. I have bugs in my house because of you. My plants shouldn't have a disease, that's why we hired you. <---(I love this one. I see a doctor each year to make sure I'm healthy, but I don't call him bitching when I catch a cold) All of these are common example of customers not wanting to understand how a service works, nor even bothering to try. The call, angry and screaming. When I try to help, I'm the one who is an idiot. (Yes, I wasted all those years in college getting three degrees in Agriculture for nothing) They demand I do what THEY think should be done, though I tell them it won't solve the problem. Of course, the customer is always right, so I go along with them and then several weeks later, they're calling again, even more pissed their grass is still brown or trees is still dying. Then, the demand their money back.
You see, customers are like children. Not all of them. I love so many of my customers. A few have become friends. But many of them only make matters worse for themselves, but not letting us educate and help them. If they'd let go of the mantra, things would be much easier for all of us.
Posted by Zoso at September 24, 2004 03:40 PM