“The customer is always right” is very, very dead.
Particularly as we all shake the pandemic off to venture back out again, customers have often been over-the-top rude to waitstaff and other people in the service industry, and it’s long overdue for them to get a dose of reality.
A woman recently wrote a complaint about a local restaurant refusing to seat her at closing time.
A marketing consultant spoke with Bored Panda about marketing, leadership, and the whole idea that the “customer is always right”. Geraint Clark said:
“People are too savvy with the phrase ‘the customer is always right’ and will leverage it for free desserts, discounts and perks. They’ve learned to expect it.
“As business owners, we have empowered these negative interactions and dehumanized the purchasing process. These days we encourage bad behavior from customers by giving them rewards through fear.”
But check out the swift justice on the anonymous woman’s posting above:
Given that we interact so infrequently face-to-face, the old adage “the customer is always right” is outdated. Geraint said, “…now we live in an online, connected society. The cost of a customer leaving unhappy could manifest in outrage on social media, anonymous negative reviews online, or corporate complaints that could result in disciplinary action. Or worse, you losing your livelihood.”
So when you’re out there in the world buying your toothpaste or ordering a burger, please chill — going from 0 to screaming helps no one.
Otherwise you’re going to face clapbacks like these.
But what about the worker? What can they do to help? Geraint explained to Bored Panda that deindividuation is at play here. “Deindividuation is a phenomenon in which people engage in seemingly impulsive, deviant, and sometimes violent acts in situations in which they believe they cannot be personally identified. Groups, crowds, and especially on the internet.”
He said, “Your only way to counteract this behavior is to humanize all of your customers. Learn their names, tell them yours and connect on a personal level. Fix genuine problems when they’re your mistake.”
But also… “don’t be afraid to lose customers if they’re unreasonable.”
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