Is it literally true that customers are always right?

Question

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Answer 1

No, but if you work with the public it is your responsibility to treat them as if they are.

I work for a business that requires I have a lot of contact with customers over the phone and when they have a complain I treat them with the most respect I can, even if they're wrong. It reflects well on a business when their #1 priority is customer satisfaction.

Answer 2

Not always. However, this principle is very useful to teach all people who serve customers, to treat customers with patience and humility. Everyone is a customer of someone else at sometime or other and it helps to keep this principle in mind, so that we may treat others with as much of care as we would expect, when we are customers, to be treated.
Imagine a situation where the principle is 'customer is never right' and there would be chaos, lots of frayed tempers on both sides of the counter, and very little would be achieved in the end. Customers may not be right at all times, but if one can politely prove that the customer is not right on one occasion, without stressing the fact, then it is good for business, and this is what today's society wants. Hence, this principle is a very positive starting point.

Answer 3

No. That saying reflects a business motto that is meant to keep customers returning despite the fact that they might be ignorant, arrogant or both. It costs businesses when they lose a customer. So, in situations where a conflict arises and can be aswaged with the customer winning, it makes the best business sense to do so. Basically that statement is really saying "the customer doesn't realize that if we make them feel that they are right, whether they are or not, we still get their business and in turn, end up being right"

Answer 4

Of course not. Some customers are a pain in the butt and even truly insane. However good service means treating them like they're always right, except that the boss wouldn't let you do some crazy thing they're asking for.

Answer 5

How "right" [the customer] always is depends upon how you(r business intends to be "seen" in the general public's eye.
Myself having worked in the public as a Customer Service Rep. and owned and operated a Cable Television system allowed me to stand on both (polar opposites) sides of the balance beam.
In my C.S. position, I had to see to it that every unmet "need" was fulfilled.
As a Business owner / service tech, I (pretty much) had control over HOW the service was to be provided.
SAM WALTON had re-invented this method during his reign. - His idealism of "the customer is ALWAYS right" did and does serve an unmet "need" in the business world.

Answer 6

Not always. there are times when they are and other times they are not. I work in a retail store that always tells us " the customer is always right, NO matter what :

Yesterday at work a customer almost hit me because i made a mistake. does that make her right? my boss says yes I say NO.

Answer 7

No, customers are not always right. A lot of times they are wrong, a lot of times they are just plain stupid. They want to always have things their way. They can be arrogant, mean and disrespectful to the ones who are serving them.

Answer 8

No, and I've worked in the public for 30 years, and let me assure you, generally, the customer is never right. They only use that expression to establish the fact the they pay our pay checks, and if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have a job.

Answer 9

I work in a mall. In one of the richest counties in the country. Many of my customers are stupid and insulting.

But, I do a damn good job of pretending that they're always right!

Answer 10

No!!!! The customer is NOT always right...we just let them think they are.