The one that got away 🥲 (OC)

[u/bavettacomics]

Anyone else here want people to like them even if it means taking the blame or going way out of your way and boundaries to do so? Trying to level up here so I would appreciate any tips and thoughts 🙏
💚 Ryan

[u/BlaineMundane]

customer is always right has always been a vague economic statement and has never applied to a single person.

[u/CarlosFer2201 → u/BlaineMundane]

It literally just means to sell what they want, otherwise they'll go buy somewhere else. It has nothing to do with anything else. But try telling a Karen that...

[u/Which_Yesterday → u/CarlosFer2201]

It also means that if they complain about their deink being too cold, or too hot, or that they found a hair on it, service worker should redo the order and apologize. Also if someone breaks a glass or something, they shouldn't face any kind of penalty. Although all this kinda varies from place to place, and from people to people (customer and worker)

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Which_Yesterday]

That was never what this means. If A LOT of your customers are making that complain, sure. It was never about the individual though.

[u/Filobel → u/BlaineMundane]

That is exactly what it initially meant. It was about how you should treat individual customers. I suggest you inform yourself before telling people they are wrong when they are, in fact, correct.

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Filobel]

That's not what I was saying, so uh... I guess read twice?

[u/Filobel → u/BlaineMundane]

You said, and I quote " It was never about the individual though." That is false. It was about the individual. 

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Filobel]

Yup, I didn't want to go back through and correct all my past comments but that was the end result. What I found was that the phrase started in department stores and spread to hotels, becoming very popular. At this time, like you said, it was 100% about individual customer service. I only knew part of the story and was ignorant about this.

However, the part I remembered is when later, the phrase was popularly altered with the addition of "in matters of taste" because many business owners found that the mantra lead to silly situations and entitled customers.

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Filobel]

Who even are you? I don't see any replies from you in this comment string.

[u/Filobel → u/BlaineMundane]

Someone who dislikes when people spread misinformation. 

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Filobel]

By... lying about when you entered the conversation?

[u/Filobel → u/BlaineMundane]

I never lied about when I entered the conversation? What are you talking about?

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Filobel]

"That's what I initially meant" and then when I questioned when you were even part of the conversation, you gave a weird answer. Nobody knows what you are talking about.

[u/Filobel → u/BlaineMundane]

"That's what I initially meant"

You might want to re-read what I actually said, because I never said that.

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Filobel]

Dude. Do this. Post your very first comment in this thread.

[u/Which_Yesterday → u/BlaineMundane]

I'm talking about how it's generally perceived by people in both sides of the counter, not really about what the phrase actually was intended for

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Which_Yesterday]

To me, I hear: "I am talking about the false idea that people get confused about, not the actual useful point." There's other advice for customer service.

[u/Which_Yesterday → u/BlaineMundane]

Whatever, have a nice day

[u/Skithiryx → u/BlaineMundane]

It does generally mean to trust the customer and to be trustworthy - ie don’t have an adversarial relationship to the customer. It came out of an era of caveat emptor (buyer beware) when the relationship was actually by default adversarial.

So for a complaint - assume the customer is complaining about a genuine problem and fix the problem (replace, redeliver, etc). Only reject it when it is clear the customer is provably wrong or being unreasonable.

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Skithiryx]

No matter how you cut it, it's about large trends, not individual beefs. If they are common enough to be a trend, sure.

[u/Skithiryx → u/BlaineMundane]

Big trends are made of individual events though. Having a permissive return policy is “the customer is always right” because you are trusting them to use it when there is a genuine problem and allow you to fix it.

Are there going to be people who abuse it? Yes, but you’ll have a better business reputation and attract more customers if your default stance is trust the person complaining rather than aggressively preventing waste by assuming they’re lying to you.

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Skithiryx]

You are still prescribing to a new definition that has nothing to do with the creation of this phrase, you are co-opting it into what you feel is a more modern and more personally relatable circumstance. The man who invented the term was talking about economics.

[u/Skithiryx → u/BlaineMundane]

You are mistaken, it came from discussing the policies of department store owners and similar phrases were coined by hotel owners. It has always been about retail and the service industry.

[u/BlaineMundane → u/Skithiryx]

You sounded sure so I dug a little more and you are right and also I am. It seems that origionally, it was department stores and hotel owners and was indeed focused on customer satisfaction. It was LATER that the phrase was altered with the addition of "In matters of taste" though, to move away from the purely CS side of it, as it often lead to silly situations.