The Customer's Always Right??

How many times have you heard that old saying, "The customer's always right"?  Sounds good to the customer . . . but do you really feel that way?

Think about it.  It's your organization.  You have procedures.  You're regulated by someone.  How can the customer always be right?  Why are you going to publicize something that you're not going to uphold?  That just leads to problems.

Approached the right way, you can make the customer feel good, and even right, by taking ownership and dealing with him/her on a positive level.  This could be long discussion but in a nutshell,

• take ownership of the issue,
• thank the customer for the complaint/report,
• understand their feelings,
• explain your procedures/regulations,
• ask how you can resolve the issue, together,
• do whatever you can (fix it, call a supervisor, etc),
• thank them for bringing the issue to your attention,
• follow-up.

Good customer service is not hard.  People just make it hard.  Remember, Treat Everyone As Me still goes a long way.