The customer is always right? I don't think so!

[Alpha Strike]

“The customer is always right” should be thrown out the window. It’s costing companies revenue, plus employees careers are being raked over the coals because of it.

Another key problem: employee morale. It's so incredibly corrosive to employee morale when they do everything they're supposed to - or even go above and beyond - and then management doesn't back them up and/or allows a customer to run over them.

I understand that management often times just wants to make a problem go away and the easiest way to do that is to give an SC whatever he/she wants, but as Greensinestro pointed out it just encourages the SC to pull the same trick at a later time.

They are given NO tools for how to recognize and deal with the chronic scammer. The one for who there IS no long and fruitful association. The dishonest, grabby, irrational, demanding jerk who will only ever cost the company money and valuable talent through attrition of experienced employees. The Sucky Customer.

Managers don't know the difference, and so in most cases they are FORCED to assume a customer is the former, recoverable type... and will keep bending over backwards for them in an attempt to pave over that roughness until their spines snap, simply because the company hasn't allowed them to do anything else.

In the case of repeat/chronic offenders, isn't a semi-functioning brain, some common-sense and a backbone all a manager really needs?

(Very good points in your post BTW.)

[blas]

You have to wonder about people like this. After the woman on foodstamps got me written up and suspended for trying to stop her from scamming the store and my spineless manager gave in to her because "That blas girl is trying to take food out of my childrens' mouths!" (yes ma'ame, your kids certainly need 8 6 packs of 24 oz Pepsis and 8 bags of chips!), I had to wonder what all she got. I got a copy of the written complaint. The manager wrote how I (note, ME!!!) had costed the store money by the manager having to give this woman something like $100 in gift cards and whatnot. Well, SHE was costing the store money by scamming our coupons! She wasn't allowed to have that many, and she played the "poor" card and I didn't fall for it, because if someone had seen that, I would have gotten in trouble ANYWAY!

I wonder how many other poor employees at grocery stores, Wal-Marts, etc, have been victims to this scamming foodstamp lady. I wonder how many other people she's had written up or suspended or even fired because of the shit she pulls. Sadly, I probably am not the only one. There are probably several others out there who have tried to stop her from scamming the store yet were pwned by management and the foodstamp scammer lives another day to do it again!

[Forensic Waitress]

Hi first time, very long time (found the site back I think in 2002, lost it for a while and then rediscovered it).

Clearly anyone with a brain will know that of course the customer is not always right.

I have worked in retail/hospitality since first starting work at the tender age of 15 (I am now 26).

People like that are part of the reason I can't wait to finish my degree and I will no longer have to deal with people. I wll have a lovely lab job far far away from their crap.

[Saydrah]

Favorite response to the "You're losing a customer/I'll never shop here again/I'll go to your competitor from now on" line(s):

Roll eyes solemnly skyward, clap hand over heart, and intone in the most serious manner possible, "Promises, promises."

[theredbaron47]

Someone around here has a quote that sums it up so well:

"The HONEST, courteous customer is always right."

If you follow that, or the one from another poster about the customer may not always be right, but the customer is the customer, that's all you should need.

IMHO, naturally.

[Tito]

Customer: I HOPE YOU'RE SATISFIED WITH LOSING ME AS A CUSTOMER! (storms off)

Yes, I'm sure the manager is very satisfied with losing that jerk as a customer.

[Lace Neil Singer]

"The customer is always right."

"True, but a lazy, selfish scammer or thief is NOT a customer, and therefore is NOT always right."

[Mike Taylor]

I laugh in people's faces when they ask if we have the Wii in stock.

Every day.

I usually don't start doing that until they begin ranting about how its a plot by Nintendo to drive up demand by making it artificially scarce. After that, I tell them Nintendo only has so many assembly lines and have to fill a GLOBAL demand for the machines.

[MadMike]

One time my grandma (may she rest in peace) overheard me complaining about my job and the customers, and said the dreaded line. I gave her examples of when the customer was not right, and she simply refused to believe people could be like that. But I guess I can't blame her, I'm sure people we more reasonable when she was growing up.

[Mike Taylor]

All the posts about the management behavior and entitlement SCs behavior at Publix have made me determined to never shop there.

Bad management and pissy customers exist in every retail company to some degree. Every Publix I've ever shopped in has been a pleasant experience. Just to give you an idea of how cool they are, we have a large population of expatriate Brits where I live. The local Publix stores went out their way to make sure they stocked food from the UK expressly for UK customers. We're talking Weetabix, Jellie Babies, Cadbury Dairy Milk Bars, Heinz Baked Beans, Aero and so on.

Back to the topic at hand:

I've always held to this belief: "The customer isn't always right, but the customer is the customer." Do what you can to satisfy the customer, but move on if they attempt to be unreasonable.

[Nakajo]

I've laughed in someone's face before. In fact, I once managed to do this in the bakery along the way from us when the customer said it to the staff there. Mind you, they were laughing at said customer as well.

Rapscallion

I laugh in people's faces when they ask if we have the Wii in stock.

Every day.

[slick]

Customer gave me the "Customers are always right" routine a few days ago, I asked, "Why?".

She left.

[Saydrah]

Man, where are those doormat managers when you actually NEED one?

My mother told me the other day about a truly awful experience she had ordering new cell phone service. She called a company that shall be known as Epic Mission and asked what sort of deals they had available and explained the plan she currently had, asking if they had a service plan that would provide the same features at a price equal to or less than she currently paid. The person she spoke to told her about a service plan that would meet her needs, and told her that the phones she could get free with the new activation were a particular model normally valued at around $150 each. My mum got all this information on the phone AND asked for the offer to be emailed to her so she would have it in writing, explaining apologetically that the last phone company she'd used would regularly offer things and then not deliver on them. The customer service person agreed and emailed her the offer for the service plan and free phones.

So her phone and her husband's phone arrive.... along with a $79.99 charge for each one on her credit card! She called the company and asked why she had been billed for the free phones, and they responded that she had been given an inaccurate offer and the phones were actually on sale for $79.99, not free with a new activation. She of course forwarded them the email from the rep promising two free phones of that model, and the company replied that they were sorry for the misunderstanding but couldn't refund the charge.

....Whaaaa?

She asked for her complaint to be forwarded to someone who COULD refund the charge, and they agree to pass it on to management.

Over a week of calling every day to get an update on the status of her complaint later, she was told that they wouldn't refund the unauthorized charge on her credit card but would credit her account for the amount she paid for the phones.

Murphy's Law of Customer Service:

Doormat managers are attracted to an equal and opposite aggressive, rude customer, while polite customers with a justified grievance are attracted to an equal and opposite aggressive, rude manager.

[chainedbarista]

a zinger from shockqueen:

sphincter scoliosis.

OMFG! best evah, i swear!

my work also has this policy: bow to their every selfish, withered hearted whim to keep them, to include non-customers (aka, freebie whores).

i develop a selective type of 'memory loss' when dealing with some of it, which may end up getting me fired, but after all, it is the principle of the matter-you are not entitled more than what you paid for, and if you paid nothing, well...

[smileyeagle1021]

Usually, when I call any kind of call center, I hear a recording that says something to the effect of : "This call may be monitored for Quality Assurance".
Weren't any of these calls recorded? Couldn't any of them prove how sucky the customer was?

Geeze...I feel for you, I really do. No one should have to put up with such abuse.
And a customer who never pays is NOT A CUSTOMER! That person is a THIEF!

Oh, and if the call center you are calling is located in Utah, they don't have to tell you that it is being recorded... Utah law only requires one of the parties to consent to the recording... and guess what all of us (at least at the 2 call centers I've worked at) had to sign when we are hired...

At least at our place with the beautiful view of the 21st south freeway we record EVERY SINGLE CALL. We also save every single email that is sent out. So if a guest claims that their email said such and such or so and so said such and such, we can bring up exactly what was said. Also, if it is a reservation that cannot be cancelled we (are supposed to at least) make the guest agree to us making the reservation, and there is no better feeling than knowing the guest will hear their beautiful voice agreeing to the reservation.

My favorite call though was the person who booked the reservation after deadline and tried to then cancel an hour later. She did the "but I only booked it an hour ago" line. I pulled up the reservation, it had my employee number stamped in the reservation history, so I knew that she agreed to making a reservation after deadline. I calmly informed her "ma'am, I know you agreed to making the reservation knowing that it was past deadline to cancel because I'm the one who made it... oh and verint is running today so the call was recorded, I have no problem asking my supervisor to pull the call to verify what was said... i just loved hearing them sputter.