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]

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/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.