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Is the customer always right?

May 30, 2008  By Amanda Ryder


I just finished reading an article in Nova Scotia's The Chronicle Herald that explored how the age old mantra 'the customer is always right' may actually be bad for business. The article looks at how blindly following this policy makes employees unhappy and give pushy customers an unfair advantage. Is the customer always right at your centre? How do you deal with cranky shoppers?

I just finished reading an article in Nova Scotia's The Chronicle
Herald that explored how the age old mantra 'the customer is always
right' may actually be bad for business. The article reports that some human resource experts believe it can hurt the bottom line to preach to staff that the customer is always right, especially when that customer is behaving badly.

One expert says that by blindly following 'the customer is always right' philosophy, you could risk losing employees if they don't feel backed-up or valued. He says that sometimes customers are in fact wrong and retaining these abrasive customers can actually act as a disservice for the business.

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So what do you think of the 'customer is always right' policy? Do you enact this policy at your centre? How do you deal with unhappy customers?


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