September 8, 2022 • 8 mins
Saying that should cease – The customer is always right
The customer may have complaints and feedback, but the customer is not always right.
Wikipedia entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_customer_is_always_right
Medium Article on Southwest Airlines - https://medium.com/@stevenduran_96808/a-story-about-how-southwest-airlines-lost-a-customer-5e6608b227fb
Assholes – A Theory - https://assholesatheory.com/
Connect with Tanya Hewitt on LinkedIn
Buy her a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tanyah
Credits:
Adam Johns – voiceover
Beverley McKiver – composer and player of the music Tell Me About Love
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Adam Johns (00:03):
Welcome to Beyond the Minimum, where we'll be exploring the world of work. We'll be chatting about concepts, ideas and phrases, explore practices and delve into what good looks like. Work can be purposeful value lead, and more meaningful to all who interact with the workplace. This podcast is brought to you by Tanya Hewitt who lives in unceded Algonquin, Anishinaabeg territory, otherwise known as Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Tanya Hewitt (00:33):
Hello, everyone. Recently, I went to a drugstore. And I had to stand in line for a while. So I started to look around and notice things that I hadn't noticed before. For example, I was looking at the decorated wall above a lot of products. It was beautiful. It was lavender flowers in a field and it was just relaxing. And then I noticed that it was above all of the beauty products. And I thought, well look at that. Nature has such beauty. And underneath that they had lipstick and eyeshadow and blush and all of the beauty products that a lot of people buy. And I just was realizing that is quite the contrast, if nature on its own is just so lovely. Why is it that is is the canopy for all of this artificial beauty that a lot of people use in order to present themselves to the world. I just thought that was an interesting conundrum.
Adam Johns (01:52):
Today's episode is sayings that should cease.
Tanya Hewitt (01:58):
Today's saying that should cease is the customer is always right. The customer is always right has a very entrenched idea, certainly in the North American business world. However, looking at Wikipedia, and I'll put this link in the comments. It's actually a little bit more pervasive than what I had first understood. It seems to have come from people like Marshall Field, John Wanamaker and Harry Gordon Selfridge, who popularized the notion of making sure that the customer is taken care of. And it's one thing to take customer feedback seriously, because there may be important improvement opportunities that otherwise the business wouldn't know about if not learning them from the customer. But this shouldn't go to the Cesar Ritz "Le client n'a jamais tort", or the customer is never wrong, or the German equivalent, the customer is king, or the Japanese equivalent, the customer is a god. From this same Wikipedia post, it's refreshing to learn that in 1914, a fellow named Frank Farrington brought up the idea of customer dishonesty. Playing with this whole idea of the customer's always right, as well as customer responsibility in the phrase Caveat emptor.
(03:24):
More recently, I have heard from Pat Lencioni, talking about a healthy company, Southwest Airlines, I'll be able to puta link into the chat from a medium article that I found not written by Pat Lencioni, so it's not just his say so on this other other people know about this as well. So healthy companies know who they are, what their core values are, and what they are not. In this example, humor is a value that all southwest employees must embrace. In delivering the FAA mandatory announcements about seatbelts, oxygen masks, exits, and the like the flight attendants do so with humor. After our honeymoon in Florida in 1996, my husband and I must have been on a Southwest flight because I remember laughing so hard at exactly this. And I remember filling out a comment card, being so impressed with the with the incredible humor of the flight attendant who you know, really should be in a stand up comedy show. That was really, really funny. However, one customer did not take this this way. She was insulted by Southwest making fun of legitimate safety rules. And according to the article that I'll be sharing with you, she was complaining about all sorts of things, not just the
(04:50):
safety rules and told the CEO of Southwest in a letter. And very famously, the CEO wrote back to this one "Dear [Name],We'll miss you. Signed Herb", who was the CEO of Southwest Airlines at the time, essentially, he was saying, there are plenty of other airlines. And if you don't like ours, don't fly with us. The customer is not always right. The customer might just be a bad fit for the company. But it doesn't mean that the company has to change who they are fundamentally, to mold themselves to the customer.
(05:31):
There's a movie out there and I'll put the info in the show notes called Assholes :A Theory. It's based on a book. Butaside from categorizing different types of assholes, there is a super clip nearing the end of the movie on Baird, a financial company that has a no Asshole Rule. While the clip focuses on employees, I could see it extending to customers very easily. If you are an asshole, find somewhere else to invest. And most recently, I heard a number of stories locally. While we had mask mandates during the pandemic, where my customers were rude, belligerent, even violent, due to their refusal to wear a mask being enforced. They could not come into the business. And as a result, they turned very, very inhospitable. The owners of these businesses had no problem banning these people from their premises, perhaps even with restraining orders, because the customer was not in the right in these cases.
(06:43):
Overall, the mantra of the customer is always right is folly. Customer feedback is helpful. But bowing to the customer'sdemands, regardless of the circumstance is just nonsensical.
I thank you for listening. I don't know if this is your first episode, or if you are a regular listener, having reallyappreciated some of this content. I just wanted to tell you that I really do appreciate you for listening. If you would like to express your gratitude for this podcast, I would encourage you to buy me a coffee, head on over to buy me a coffee.com/tanyah that's buy b-u-y me m-e a coffee c-o-f-f-e-e all one word.com/t-a-n-y-a-h tanyah. I will put this in the show notes. And I would really sincerely appreciate your support. In addition to that, you can rate and review this podcast and I really, really appreciate that you are here listening to what I am sending out to you guys. Thanks so much.
Adam Johns (08:11):
Thank you so much for listening to Beyond the Minimum with Tanya Hewitt. We hope this episode aligned with you. Maybe it was diametrically opposed to us at any rate, we trust it made you think the more we can think about our workplaces and start talking about them, the more we can collectively make a real difference. If you're living in Canada, please find out the Indigenous territory in which you reside. begin using it to introduce yourself. Please reach out to Tanya through her email Tanya@beyondsafetycompliance.ca. Connect and chat with her on LinkedIn. Follow her company Beyond Safety Compliance. And remember to ask yourself the question, How does your work look? Because we can always go Beyond the Minimum.
Welcome to Beyond the Minimum, where we'll be exploring the world of work. We'll be chatting about concepts, ideas and phrases, explore practices and delve into what good looks like. Work can be purposeful value lead, and more meaningful to all who interact with the workplace. This podcast is brought to you by Tanya Hewitt who lives in unceded Algonquin, Anishinaabeg territory, otherwise known as Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Tanya Hewitt (00:33):
Hello, everyone. Recently, I went to a drugstore. And I had to stand in line for a while. So I started to look around and notice things that I hadn't noticed before. For example, I was looking at the decorated wall above a lot of products. It was beautiful. It was lavender flowers in a field and it was just relaxing. And then I noticed that it was above all of the beauty products. And I thought, well look at that. Nature has such beauty. And underneath that they had lipstick and eyeshadow and blush and all of the beauty products that a lot of people buy. And I just was realizing that is quite the contrast, if nature on its own is just so lovely. Why is it that is is the canopy for all of this artificial beauty that a lot of people use in order to present themselves to the world. I just thought that was an interesting conundrum.
Adam Johns (01:52):
Today's episode is sayings that should cease.
Tanya Hewitt (01:58):
Today's saying that should cease is the customer is always right. The customer is always right has a very entrenched idea, certainly in the North American business world. However, looking at Wikipedia, and I'll put this link in the comments. It's actually a little bit more pervasive than what I had first understood. It seems to have come from people like Marshall Field, John Wanamaker and Harry Gordon Selfridge, who popularized the notion of making sure that the customer is taken care of. And it's one thing to take customer feedback seriously, because there may be important improvement opportunities that otherwise the business wouldn't know about if not learning them from the customer. But this shouldn't go to the Cesar Ritz "Le client n'a jamais tort", or the customer is never wrong, or the German equivalent, the customer is king, or the Japanese equivalent, the customer is a god. From this same Wikipedia post, it's refreshing to learn that in 1914, a fellow named Frank Farrington brought up the idea of customer dishonesty. Playing with this whole idea of the customer's always right, as well as customer responsibility in the phrase Caveat emptor.
(03:24):
More recently, I have heard from Pat Lencioni, talking about a healthy company, Southwest Airlines, I'll be able to puta link into the chat from a medium article that I found not written by Pat Lencioni, so it's not just his say so on this other other people know about this as well. So healthy companies know who they are, what their core values are, and what they are not. In this example, humor is a value that all southwest employees must embrace. In delivering the FAA mandatory announcements about seatbelts, oxygen masks, exits, and the like the flight attendants do so with humor. After our honeymoon in Florida in 1996, my husband and I must have been on a Southwest flight because I remember laughing so hard at exactly this. And I remember filling out a comment card, being so impressed with the with the incredible humor of the flight attendant who you know, really should be in a stand up comedy show. That was really, really funny. However, one customer did not take this this way. She was insulted by Southwest making fun of legitimate safety rules. And according to the article that I'll be sharing with you, she was complaining about all sorts of things, not just the
(04:50):
safety rules and told the CEO of Southwest in a letter. And very famously, the CEO wrote back to this one "Dear [Name],We'll miss you. Signed Herb", who was the CEO of Southwest Airlines at the time, essentially, he was saying, there are plenty of other airlines. And if you don't like ours, don't fly with us. The customer is not always right. The customer might just be a bad fit for the company. But it doesn't mean that the company has to change who they are fundamentally, to mold themselves to the customer.
(05:31):
There's a movie out there and I'll put the info in the show notes called Assholes :A Theory. It's based on a book. Butaside from categorizing different types of assholes, there is a super clip nearing the end of the movie on Baird, a financial company that has a no Asshole Rule. While the clip focuses on employees, I could see it extending to customers very easily. If you are an asshole, find somewhere else to invest. And most recently, I heard a number of stories locally. While we had mask mandates during the pandemic, where my customers were rude, belligerent, even violent, due to their refusal to wear a mask being enforced. They could not come into the business. And as a result, they turned very, very inhospitable. The owners of these businesses had no problem banning these people from their premises, perhaps even with restraining orders, because the customer was not in the right in these cases.
(06:43):
Overall, the mantra of the customer is always right is folly. Customer feedback is helpful. But bowing to the customer'sdemands, regardless of the circumstance is just nonsensical.
I thank you for listening. I don't know if this is your first episode, or if you are a regular listener, having reallyappreciated some of this content. I just wanted to tell you that I really do appreciate you for listening. If you would like to express your gratitude for this podcast, I would encourage you to buy me a coffee, head on over to buy me a coffee.com/tanyah that's buy b-u-y me m-e a coffee c-o-f-f-e-e all one word.com/t-a-n-y-a-h tanyah. I will put this in the show notes. And I would really sincerely appreciate your support. In addition to that, you can rate and review this podcast and I really, really appreciate that you are here listening to what I am sending out to you guys. Thanks so much.
Adam Johns (08:11):
Thank you so much for listening to Beyond the Minimum with Tanya Hewitt. We hope this episode aligned with you. Maybe it was diametrically opposed to us at any rate, we trust it made you think the more we can think about our workplaces and start talking about them, the more we can collectively make a real difference. If you're living in Canada, please find out the Indigenous territory in which you reside. begin using it to introduce yourself. Please reach out to Tanya through her email Tanya@beyondsafetycompliance.ca. Connect and chat with her on LinkedIn. Follow her company Beyond Safety Compliance. And remember to ask yourself the question, How does your work look? Because we can always go Beyond the Minimum.
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