Is The Customer Always Right? Here’s My Viewpoint

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The business world is a complicated place to live in. I don't mean it negatively. Well, maybe I do. But I'm just stating the facts. The business world is not for “simple people”, gullible, people without tactics, and those who get angry easily. The business world is for smart people who know the game and its territory.

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I salute business owners. Why? Because they are doing a very good job to keep everything in place. Successful business people have been through a lot before they got to the “good point” in their businesses.

I'm not yet in my twenties, but I can boldy say I have a lot of experience when it comes to “business”. I've worked in so many places; a gym, event center, salon, school, and so on. So trust me when I say I'm experienced and have a lot of things to say not only about this topic but about “business” in general.

What does the quote “The customer is always right” mean to me

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In the business world, the most important thing to consider is customers. When setting up a business, location is one of the most important factors to consider. Besides the fact that setting up your business in a good location helps scout the best employees, it also helps attract customers.

Let's take a look at this example; two women with enough capital, available goods, and all. They both have a plan to set up a provision store. While the first woman set up her provision store in a school area (where a lot of students live), the other woman set up her provision store in an area where there are just a few houses. Who do you think would make more profits at the end of the day?

Of course, the first woman would make more money because she chose a better location where there are lots of customers to purchase her goods.

The roles customers play in the success of a business cannot be understated. Do you expect a businessman (let's say someone who sells food) to thrive without customers? How would he make profits? By consuming his goods himself?

No business can thrive/ the sentence; a successful business cannot exist without customers. I'm sure you agree with me that customers help put food on business owners’ tables. They help move the business forward. With the money they make from customers, business owners can buy new things, repair damaged things, renovate and even pay employees. If there are no customers, how would business owners pay their employers? This is why business owners do everything they can to satisfy their customers. In the business world, every customer is important, which is why it is advisable to take everything with care.

Is the quote “The customer is always right absolutely true?

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“The customer is always right” is this really true? Are they ALWAYS right? Yes! I know the customers are very important in moving the business forward. But, are they Always right? Should they get away with things every time (even when they're obviously wrong?)? The truth is “NO” is a very big no. The customers are not always right. They are also human beings, and they are bound to make mistakes (every human being make mistakes).

Personally, when this issue comes up, the customer is 70% wrong most of the time, but business owners try not to make their customers angry, so the best thing to do is to agree with whatever they say (even when they're wrong).

Sometimes some customers are not patient at all and they easily get angry over little things. To worsen it, there are also abusive and violent customers. It is not every time that you get to see nice customers that’d smile at you, sometimes the hot-headed one comes in.

I've had to deal with a hot-headed customer who almost beat me (and my team up). Some unreasonable customers always want things to go their way. And that is the type of customer that walked in that day (This is one of my worst experiences with a customer).

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In the business world, it is very important to know the type of people you employ. Employers also play a vital role in keeping the business running. Just as we have hot-headed customers, some hot-headed employers wouldn't take insults/blames for anything. When the customer is hot-headed and the employer is also hot-headed how would the situation get settled? That is why it is very important to know your employers and also train them in business ethics.

My Experience

As I said earlier, I have a lot of experience when it comes to “business”. I've experienced the “The customer is always right” scenario as a customer and also as the one offering the service. In this article, I'll share my experience from the employer's side.

The first time I experienced the “the customer is always right” scenario was when I worked as a teacher in an elementary school. After I graduated from high school, I took on a teaching job. A kid got sent home because he hadn't paid his school fees. A few minutes later, his mom came angrily, shouting at everyone. Unlikely, I was the boy’s teacher, so everything (the insults) landed on me.

This is nothing compared to the experience I had when I worked in a gym as a gym secretary.

Working as a gym secretary is one of the best jobs I ever did. Even though I experienced some difficulties, I learned things and in a way, it improved and developed my skills.

The gym was in a student area, so most of the customers are students. They are very easy to relate with. Before I started working there, I once worked in a different gym so I know how the business worked. I knew how to relate well with the customers.

The gym opens every day except on Sundays. It opens in the morning from 8 am-11 am and in the afternoon, from 4 pm-6 pm. When it is exactly 11 am, it is my job to turn off the lights, off all equipment, turn off the generator (we run the gym with a generator), and lock the gym doors.

So this faithful day, I wasn't the only employer at the gym, a senior employer (the gym instructor) was also there. When it was exactly 10:55 am, I announced that they had 5 more minutes. This time, most people leave, while some wait to exhaust the remaining five minutes.

The gym owner gave a strict warning to always allow all customers to leave before I turn off the generator. But there was a 10 minutes rule. I can turn off the generator after 10 minutes, even if the customers were still in.

After announcing that they had 5 more minutes, I arranged everything, closed the windows, and turned off some equipment. After doing all this, I went outside to check some things, I expected that when I’d come back no one would be in the gym and the last thing to do was just to turn off the generator and go home.

Lo and behold, when I went back in, there was still someone inside. A guy. He was still using the treadmill. He must’ve been so engrossed in whatever he was doing that he didn't hear my announcement.

Well, I checked my wristwatch, it was 5 minutes past 11. He had 5 minutes more until it was within my rights to turn off the generator. After about 3 minutes, he came down from the treadmill. I thought he was ready to go home until he jumped on another equipment; the bench press.

I was angry and surprised at the same time. After about 3 minutes, his time was up. But I didn't want to turn off the generator just like that, without telling him. That'd be rude, right? Yeah, that's what I also thought.

I walked up to him and talked to him politely. Besides the fact that employers should always talk to customers politely, I couldn't even talk to him rudely if I wanted to. He was huge (six packs, muscles and all), plus he wasn't smiling at all. I politely told him that his time was up and that It was time for me to turn off the generator. To my surprise, he just looked at me and continued what he was doing.

“Maybe his girlfriend just broke up with him or something and he wants to vent his anger on something, that is why he was like that,” I thought to myself. To avoid getting slapped by his big hands, I decided to give him two more minutes.

After two minutes, I went back again to tell him that his time was up. This time he didn't even look at me, he just snubbed me as if I was a mosquito.

I checked his ears if he was wearing earbuds, but..nope. He snubbed me intentionally. When it was 30 minutes past 11 (yes! I waited for 30 minutes) I told the gym instructor and he said I could turn off the generator. I went ahead to turn off the generator, but when I came back, even before I entered the gym I was already hearing someone shouting. When I entered, I saw it was the guy (just as I expected). He shouted at me from afar and asked why I turned off the gen while he was still in. I tried to explain, but before I could even complete a sentence, he came closer to me. I had to shift because he was really angry. The gym instructor quickly came between us, he was bigger than him so I rested assured nothing would happen to me.

He said because I turned off the gen while he was still in, I'd have to turn it on again and wait till he's done or we refund his gym fee.

I was very angry, but I couldn't do anything about it. I tried to talk to him calmly, but he was not ready to listen to me.

I had to call my boss and he came right away. I explained everything to him. He spoke to the guy, and after a few minutes of talking, he left.

My boss didn't blame me for anything, instead, he praised me for not escalating the issue and talking back to the guy.

In conclusion

Customers shouldn't treat employees badly because “the customer is always right”. Don’t use that to justify your rude behaviors. Employers are humans just like you. And remember the customer is “Not” always right.

Thanks for reading.