"Originally Posted by SkyPup
Successful Sales and Service Rule #1 - The customer is always right.
Successful Sales and Service Rule #2 - The customer is wrong....see Rule #1."
I'm glad that someone has the guts to put the screws to this old, tired, lazy phrase.
The customer is NOT always right. Many times they are confused, misinformed, ignorant, unreasonable, and completely out of line. Unfortunately, too many times this old line is misunderstood today to mean that good customer service means that the customer gets whatever they want.......regardless. But, hehe, many times the customer expects far too much and isn't worth the loss to be perfectly honest.
I work in a service industry where warranties and claims and cost/benefit is a daily staple and quite honestly it's often not worth the time, effort, and money to give someone what they believe is "fair"....which most often translates into "give me whatever I want for free or I'll cancel".......well, go ahead and cancel as doing what it takes to please you is a net loss to the company which you soon won't make up.
Sorry to "go off" on this, but this whole subject boils my blood. I am a reasonable individual who accepts risk and loss with any action or transaction. I do not require baby-ing or a silk gloves when conducting business. I expect nothing for free. But, too many today do in fact expect and demand these very things and assume zero responsibility on their own. And, hey, it's not just the modern generations who do this either, no. I find much the same with the older folks who feel "entitled" to things because of their age. Likewise, I run into younger who are fine customers and never complain. Go figure, eh?
The one aspect where I truly believe that Wal-Mart has hurt our society is in their easy and relaxed return policy. It's a big joke to return things to Wal-Mart that have been opened, or broken, or possibly not even purchased there because they so often will give you a refund/credit because their policy is so open and designed to give the potential customer zero hassle. This expectation has then been carried over by so many to apply to all businesses as an example of "good customer service." BS! It's a loss-leader philosophy that only the biggest of the big can assume and not realistic for the vast majority of businesses operating in this country.
Whew.......done now
