Is the Customer always RIGHT? Here’s Answer.

“Right or wrong, the customer is always right”, was said by a Chicago retailer Marshall Field once and the rest is the history. Many organizations, businesses, firms, entrepreneurs, work strictly according to this statement. But is it really the case? Is the customer always right? Do you always have to put the customers on top of your priority list? Is making the customer happy the only thing you should be looking at? Many would say yes, some would say NO.

I don’t agree with Mr. Marshall Field. Right is right and wrong is wrong. You cannot right the wrong just because it’s your customer. And I have some reasons for disagreeing with Mr. Field.

You cannot make someone happy when someone does not want to be happy

As a business or as an entrepreneur you do not only deal with one customer and you cannot satisfy every customer. If you will go down this road, you may end up making every customer unhappy. I don’t think you want that. So, leave the unhappy customers behind and keep those happy who want to be happy.

Customers are not your only stakeholders

In a business you have a number of stakeholders. YES, customers are important because you make a product or you provide a service and there has to be someone who can buy it. But there are people who help you make it, there are people who are watching you making it (Regularity authorities) and there are people who give you the facilities to make it. If you focus the customers only, there is a huge chance of creating trouble for yourself, by making the other stakeholders unhappy. Be careful.

Good Customer vs Bad Customer

“In the world of customer centricity, there are good customers…and then there is everybody else.”

Peter Fader

Customers are very important but not every customer. There are good customers and then there are bad customers. Good customers should be made happy at any cost but it is ironic that there is no need to put in a lot of effort to make good customers happy. Bad customers take your effort and even then are not happy. And you keep trying to make them happy, you don’t even realize that the slight effort the good customer demand, they are not getting it and you are losing good customers.

You don’t have the resources

Just think for once, what does customer demand? Everything! Do you have the resources to provide everything? NO! What does the customer want? Perfection! Does perfection exist? NO! The more you think the customer is right the more you get distracted from your actual goals. You have to make everyone happy, not only the customers.

Concluding it, I would say it’s only what I believe. And customers aside, nobody in this world is always right! I might be wrong. But I think that businesses must look at the bigger picture. The world is changing. And there is more to your businesses than the customers who are forcing you to think that customer is always right.