Why the Customer Doesn’t Always Need to be Right

A tough lesson learned

Photo by Proriat Hospitality on Unsplash

I’ve worked my fair share of customer service jobs. A Burger King cashier when I was 16. A clerk at the local flower shop during college. A furniture store salesperson and a leasing agent for a large real estate development company. Those jobs couldn’t have been more different, but the same overarching principle guided each and every one of them:

“The customer is always right.” A phrase that can be traced back to the early 1900s and was adopted by successful retailers like Harry Gordon Selfridge, John Wanamaker and Marshall Field, suggesting that customer satisfaction should be prioritized above all else.

Nowadays, I often find myself wondering whether anyone still prescribes to that principle.

We’ve all been on the receiving end of rude, pushy or dismissive remarks from someone whose job it is to simply help us out in one way, shape or form.

• The checkout clerk who smirks at you and avoids eye contact — even when the digital keypad on the counter asks whether you were greeted with a smile.
• The over-the-phone technical support professional who won’t take ‘no’ for an answer when trying to upsell you on a product that’s already malfunctioning.