Surviving Customer Service - Is the Customer Always Right?

To better understand the perspective of this and my other articles on customer service I recommend you read the short introduction at Why These Articles? first.

Is the customer always right?

This is not a workable statement, and you should just forget about it.

This statement is not accurate so doesn't provide you a framework of how to deal with a customer who seems to be wrong or is making an unreasonable demand. Of course some customers are wrong sometimes. They could be completely in error about their account balance and how it got that way, for example. Are you just going to hand them some money because "The customer is always right"? Once in  a long while they are completely crazy. But how do you manage this? How do you keep your integrity in this situation?

What we are dealing with really is risk management. How much should we bend to the seemingly unreasonable request or perhaps a scam before it’s not a good business decision? In most cases you should do a lot. In this article you’ll find out why.

As a CSR your role very often includes the salvaging of a potential loss of future business. You should always think in terms of future business. It will give you the proper perspective. Right now you may be a customer service rep but you may have your own business someday or may be in a position where you are responsible for revenue and the bottom line, so follow along. 

Now, regarding the seemingly unreasonable request itself; forget about whether you think this person is an idiot or a weirdo. It’s irrelevant. Talk about it later with your spouse of friend if you even remember.

As CSRs we are often faced with an expressed concern or complaint from a customer that seems ridiculous. You have all heard them. On the Internet you can find entire web sites dedicated to stories of “unintelligent” requests or statements from customers.

There are two main elements to balance and use as guidelines when presented with such situations:

1.     You are not that person and you don’t know how serious this may be in their world.

2.     Scammers are a very low percentage and the future business of that customer, most of the time, outweighs the current cost in dispute.

Let’s look at point number one above. I have seen customers get very upset if we forgot that they didn’t want any coleslaw on their plate. You might say to yourself or a colleague, “The guy doesn’t have to freak out! Just don’t eat it.”

How do you know that this person is not deathly allergic to the sunflower seeds in the coleslaw or that he/she didn’t almost die one time of food poisoning from mayonnaise or perhaps forced to eat coleslaw when he/she didn’t like it as a kid, etc., etc.? You get the point?

Their reaction may seem illogical or disproportionate to you, but that is you, not them. People have all kinds of odd phobias or considerations about things that you may not have. That is not your concern at all in this case. Your concern is to salvage the future business of this customer by correcting the error and making them happy. (See my article on the Happy Customer)

Assume that they think it is important or serious because they mentioned it to you. Don’t spend too much time trying to figure out why they don’t like so-and-so because it seems strange to you. Just carry on and fix it. Listen, understand and acknowledge. Apologize. They should leave smiling every time.

Regarding point number two above: the actual percentage of people who complain just to get something free is not that high. It’s probably less than 10 percent, and more likely around 3 percent.

So what do we do?

Follow the formula for point number one, and treat it as a real concern. Unless you can prove it without a doubt then you had better not accuse the customer of fraud. Be direct and polite. Gather all the facts in case you have to do further investigation or pass it on to a manager. The thing is; that in a lot of cases, the part or item won’t actually cost your business much at all to replace or fix.

Take a restaurant for example. A food item with a menu price of about $10.00 usually has a cost of about $1.50 for the actual food. This can vary but let's use it as an example. There is also labor, electricity to factor in, etc.

Let’s look at how this fits into the big picture. The customer has come in the door and is patronizing your establishment right now. We don’t know how he/she got there, but it could have been through one of those $100,000 commercials. Now you won’t spend $1.50 to keep this customer because he or she says the burger is raw and you don’t really think it was that raw?

Now weigh this against the lifetime value of a typical customer, which goes as follows:

Average purchase multiplied by the number of visits per month multiplied by twelve months multiplied by twenty years.

Let’s say this person spends $10.00 per visit and comes once per week.

That would be 10 X 4 X 12 X 20 = $9,600.00.  All lost for the sake of $1.50 and a smile. Oops!

And what if he or she starts bad-mouthing your business around town now? Conversely, some customers patronize the same restaurant two or three times a week and bring friends as well and recommend it to others.

From a business point of view it’s a good risk. Besides, if you are still not too sure about this customer, make sure you get their name and address and remember their face. They can only run this on you so many times and then you’ll be sure about proceeding with the “divorce”:

“Well, sir, we have tried on many occasions to get your order right. Perhaps we are not up to your standards and you would be happier down the road at…”

Risk management. And, “Until you have walked a mile in their shoes…” (a good idea because they will be a mile away and have no shoes if you still disagree)