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The Customer's Always Right--Except When They're Wrong
Recently the Halifax Chronicle Herald ran an article titled "Put People First." In it, staff writer Bill Power reported that the "customer's always right" maxim, which has guided generations of retailers, has no currency with a new generation of employees.
Power's interviews with a variety of human resources experts revealed that members of Gen Y won't take rudeness from customers or employers. In fact, Alexander Kjerulf, author of Happy Hour is Nine to Five, points out that customers are often wrong "and managers do a huge disservice to mistreated employees when supporting a rude customer." The experts say that blind adherence to the old customer's always right maxim will result in the loss of the customer and the staff member.
In the article, Kjerulf asserts that "the most important relationship a business has today is not with a particular customer, but with its loyal employees." He concludes that if employers put their people first, staff will, in turn, put customers first.
This is an article of the times: Retail sales staff will no longer tolerate abuse or even cranky customers. In turn, consumers have become even more demanding (often irrationally so). Throw into the mix the fact that a release today from the Canadian Tourism Resource Council revealed that in the next two years the tourism industry will see a dramatic labor shortage (70,000 unfilled positions) and the need to keep staff happy takes on even greater importance. But, the reality is that you can't run a business if you're afraid of losing a customer or a staff member.
Blind adherence to the idea that the staff is always right is no smarter than fidelity to the idea that the customer is always right. In the article, Brenda Fair, a partner at Fairwinds Training and Development, points out that employers have to train people to handle unruly clients; "that 80 percent of difficult clients can be turned around with the right approach." That's a good idea. But really, in the end, shouldn't common sense rule the day? And, shouldn't we all try to be reasonable, accommodating and civil?
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Lori Smith, , Editor-in-Chief
Lori Smith is the editor of Gifts and Tablewares, Canada's premiere gifts and tablewares magazine. Written for retailers of gifts, tablewares, housewares, stationery and home furnishing accessories, its objective is to help readers increase their sales and run their businesses more profitably by providing information on new products, merchandising, small business management, customer service, consumer behavior and industry news. The magazine is published six times a year by BIG Magazines, LP, a leading Canadian information company.
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on June 26, 2008 3:28 PM.
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