Does this article caption seem like sacrilege? Especially in the context of all the cacophony of narratives that float around viz\u00a0Customer Service, Customer Delight, Customer Centricity, Customer Experience, Customer Journey.<\/strong>..and all of that and more.<\/p>\n Over time, we have transgressed(not so effortlessly) from mass to mass customisation to personalisation to customer segment of one. And somewhere in between there is the\u00a0Long Tail<\/strong>\u00a0effect as well that encourages more granularity when it comes to addressing customers.<\/p>\n The phrase \u201c\u00a0The customer is always right\u00a0<\/strong>\u201d was originally coined in 1909 by\u00a0Harry Gordon Selfridge<\/strong>, the founder of Selfridge\u2019s department store in London.Business was different, expectations were certainly so and organised retail was only at the embryonic stage. This line\u00a0is typically used by businesses to convince\u00a0customers<\/strong>\u00a0that they will get good service at this company and convince employees to give\u00a0customers<\/strong>\u00a0good service.<\/p>\n Of course, there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service( the\u00a0United Airlines<\/strong>\u00a0incident last year involving a passenger last year stands out like a sore thumb) but trying to solve this by declaring the customer \u201calways right\u201d is counter-productive.<\/p>\n CEO Hal Rosenbluth<\/strong>(owner of Rosenbluth Corporate Travel, since acquired by\u00a0American Express<\/strong>) wrote an excellent book about their approach called\u00a0Put The Customer Second\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u2013 Put your people first and watch\u2019em kick butt<\/em>. Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. It\u2019s a chain reaction, often overlooked by organisations and brands.<\/p>\n In his book\u00a0Customer Centricity<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0Peter Fader<\/strong>(Marketing Professor at Wharton & Co-Director,The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative<\/strong>)\u00a0encourages business owners to focus on the customers who matter most: \u201cNot all customers deserve your company\u2019s best efforts. And despite what the old adage says, the customer is most definitely not always right. Because in the world of customer centricity, there are good customers\u2026and then there is everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n To borrow the experience that\u00a0Tim Ferris<\/strong>(author of the wildly popular\u00a0The Four Hour Work Week\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>book) where he realised he was spending far too much time attending to customers who were contributing very little to revenues but causing high amount of stress, only to recalibrate his energies and attention to customers that warranted it best.<\/p>\n Haven\u2019t we heard this before: \u201cThe customer is always right, except when they\u2019re wrong\u2014and then, it\u2019s\u00a0our<\/em>\u00a0fault\u201d.<\/p>\n A more balanced way of looking at it would be to respect the customer, as it\u2019s not about who\u2019s right; it\u2019s about what\u2019s best for your company and the customer together. It takes two to tango.<\/p>\n Another example was when\u00a0Toblerone<\/strong>\u00a0changed\u00a0the shape of their iconic chocolate bars, customers went absolutely bananas. It wasn\u2019t that the new shape of the bars was bad, per se. It was just\u00a0different<\/em>, and people HATE different. Customers like to maintain the norm.The status quo, be in the comfort zone..<\/p>\n When you make changes in your business, you will probably get some initial backlash, even if the change that you have made, is for the better. If you have the attitude that the customer is always right, you\u2019ll never make healthy improvements to your business because the possibility of bad customer feedback will paralyse you.<\/p>\n Needless to say we all need to strive for excellent customer service, or delight or experience as the case may be. But, adopting a \u2018 Customer is always right \u2018 policy\u00a0can end up actually hurting your business. You kill employee morale, empower rude customers, slow down innovation, and even create unhappy experiences for other customers.<\/p>\n A much better strategy would be to empower your team to make the\u00a0right\u00a0<\/strong>decisions. And, that would translate to\u201d\u00a0The Right Customer is Always Right\u00a0<\/strong>\u201c. That\u2019s a much better place to be.<\/p>\n ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n Image: ISD Global<\/strong><\/p>\n www.groupisd.com<\/strong><\/p>\n www.brandknewmag.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Customer-Experience-CEX-300x152.jpg\")
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