As i was just leaving my shift and another was "helping" this lady. I picked up my drink at the end of the bar, she was complaining loudly to a friend about how rude my co-worker was and how since she was a customer, she was somehow not worthy of the treatment she was given and she would phone "head office" tomorrow to complain.
now for the question. Does being a cutstomer give them the right to treat us like lesser humans? Who came up with this "the customer is always right" and does it pretain to the society we live in now?
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Sort of....42% Voted for by Energizer Bunny, mudgod, Applehead.
Now I don’t for a minute believe that anyone ever meant the phrase literally. Customers can be wrong just as often as anyone else. It's just that serving a customer or waiting on someone required an added level of courtesy, irrespective of whether that person was right or wrong, or of whether the customer was polite or rude, kind or horrible. Courtesy was the order of the day, no matter what. As I blieve it to be, the issue was not whether the customer was actually correct, it was that each customer was entitled to her point of view, and it was the job of the seller/service person/vendor to fit the interaction to meet the needs and demands of the customer.
We’ve all heard the claim that a happy customer tells 5 friends and an unhappy customer tells 100. In the days of blogs, email and instant messengers, it's safe to extend the reach of those unhappy customers far beyond the normal boundaries. But with the easy access of blogs and forums, even the less adventurous dissatisfied customer can tell 100's or 1,000's with virtually no effort unless a few strokes of the keyboard cause you to exspire beyond belief. Is the customer always right? Of course not. Do we need to treat them as if they are? You bet we do. And if we don’t each find ways to do this for our individual businesses, those customers are going to let us and the world know just how unhappy (and right!) they really are. I understand some customers just want to show their butts.
and furthermore, some customers use customer service as a kicking post.
but many of them do actually have legitimate complaints.
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NoThe customer is most certainly not always right, and many don't know the meaning of respect. Treat others how you expect to be treated.Voted for by Weydon.
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shamWell, the customer is not 'right' in any important sense, but one will tend to keep more customers if one deals with their B.S.Voted for by Alexander Hine.
Of course, if someone is taking things to far (to the point of abuse) no-one need to take it.
I'm with mudgod. If you can't deal with rude customers, get out of customer service.
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Weydon
February 13
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In the situation Kaz described, I'm sure the person that informed her of phoning in advance did so politely and was willing to do so in the moment. But doing so in the moment would take almost as long as 22 transactions, in a store with a constant line already. It would be a benefit to the employees, customers waiting in line, and even the woman waiting for her gift cards if she called in advance NEXT TIME, just for her information. She chose to go crazy.
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