The Customer is Never Wrong

The Customer is never wrong--WRONG


The other day I was in a small store when I noticed the now classical, “The Customer is Always right” sign. You know how it goes. It says, “1) The Customer is always Right; 2) If the Customer is wrong, see 1.” I immediately put on my marketing hat and starting thinking about that phrase. Sure, as marketers you want to dazzle customers, to cater to their needs and wants. But does that necessarily mean they are never wrong. I mean really wrong!

Of course not. Customers are human. Just like you and me, they can be wrong. No one is perfect (except, perhaps, for my friend Dave who thinks he is perfect: He says he thought he made a mistake once but he was wrong). What happens when customers are wrong? How do you handle it? What do you say?

No matter how wrong they are, unless you intentionally wish to drive them away (and for some customers this may actually be the case—they are more pain to have as customers than their revenues and profits provide if indeed they provide any profits at all), you must be diplomatic about the whole affair. No one likes to be wrong and especially be called on it in public or at an awkward time or place. Most people know they are not infallible (unlike Dave) and know they make mistakes. If politely and discretely told of the mistake and it is quite clearly a customer mistake, most people will apologize and correct the mistake and continue on with life. They will actually thank you for catching it and for the manner in which you acted upon it. What they will not like, not accept, nor remember fondly is if you act as if the customer were a criminal attempting to purposely take the business for a ride. Even if the customer were wrong on that occasion, you might still want to keep that customer. If you act as if he were guilty until proven innocent, that may well be the last time you see that customer again.

A second scenario is say nothing. Do nothing. Accept the mistake and go on. Why? Let us presume the business is a grocery store. The average family spends hundreds of dollars a month at that store if they are loyal customers The annual value to that store for that customer could easily tally three to four thousand dollars. The total value of that customer over the lifetime of that customer could easily be one hundred to two hundred thousand dollars (and more if the customer’s kids become loyal and do their shopping at your store).
One day the customer is doing her regular weekly shopping run ($75 to 100) and while checking her out, she complains you ran up an item for $3.55 when she remembers it distinctly being $2.95. This is a sixty cent difference. One response of the checker is to challenge the customer, perhaps belittle her, send a clerk to do a price check and when the clerk comes back with the price the checker knew was right to publicly denounce her for her whimsical imagination. The checker would be in the right but at what cost? Being publicly humiliated is not fun for anyone except the masochistic at heart. She is very likely to be hesitant to continue her shopping ways at your store for fear of running into the same clerk or perhaps some of the people in line behind her who heard the checker’s tirade. And if she does not go to your store, where is she likely to shop? At your competitors. No rules exists that says she must continue to be your loyal customer. A better way to handle this situation is merely to saying nothing. Sixty cents is pennies (sic) over the life of what that customer is worth to you. You will gladly take that loss because you have kept that customer. You know she was wrong but it didn’t matter.

Remember, when the customer is wrong, really wrong, no one wins, especially you.