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I heard someone else say it better and more accurately when he said, "the customer is not always right, but he is always the customer."
That is exactly what I told my employees when I was a manager and it's the simple truth. Working with the public you have to have a thick skin and a good sense of humor to survive. Most customers are really pretty good and the ones that aren't can be a surprise/shock but you learn to deal with it.
I think it came about once companies noticed they had competition from other businesses and they used it as a means to separate themselves from everyone else.
I agree that the business should have some say in how it operates their business, and most will do just that. Example, kick out drunkards and rude customers. Say someone came into your store swearing at you, I doubt anyone would bend-over backwards for that person.
I don't understand how are culture is founded on freedom but when it comes to work we are suppose to bend over to customers or bosses even when they are wrong. It just brings stress to the employee and creates a negative environment. Why did American companies adopted this if its employees suffer the most and customers know that they can take advantage of the situation?
Wow..I hope you don't ever decide to start a business sheesh
The problem is it trains customers to throw a fit to get special treatment. Scream and cuss, and you are rewarded with a gift card, or being able to cut the long line. And when other customers see these people getting special treatment, they start getting mad too. It's this time of year, Sept-Jan, when the customers are the most angry. I got yelled at yesterday by 2 customers for no reason. A manager overheard one incident and told me there was nothing I could have done. The other, I managed to turn around and the customer left very happy (but I hadn't done what she accused me of in the first place ).
Many, many people threaten to never shop there again, and it is almost always an empty threat. If we had more realistic policies towards customers, we would still retain 99% of their business without having to deal with most of the bad behavior.
Another thing is these policies favor giant corporations. They can afford to replace every dropped ice cream cone, or to let people return anything, anytime, without a receipt. Small companies can't compete with that.
The problem is it trains customers to throw a fit to get special treatment. Scream and cuss, and you are rewarded with a gift card, or being able to cut the long line. And when other customers see these people getting special treatment, they start getting mad too. It's this time of year, Sept-Jan, when the customers are the most angry. I got yelled at yesterday by 2 customers for no reason. A manager overheard one incident and told me there was nothing I could have done. The other, I managed to turn around and the customer left very happy (but I hadn't done what she accused me of in the first place ).
Many, many people threaten to never shop there again, and it is almost always an empty threat. If we had more realistic policies towards customers, we would still retain 99% of their business without having to deal with most of the bad behavior.
Another thing is these policies favor giant corporations. They can afford to replace every dropped ice cream cone, or to let people return anything, anytime, without a receipt. Small companies can't compete with that.
Our society is based on the ethic and idiom of commerce. Every relationship is ultimately commercial, every relationship is based on reciprocity of exchange and the angling for obtaining something for one's investment. Bourgeois politeness isn’t about being a lady or a gentleman, but about endearing oneself to one's interlocutor, to secure the deal, to solicit favor, to earn good-graces and status. In a centralized economy where retail establishments are limited, goods are in short supply, and there is no profit-motive, employees can and do ignore customers, treating them curtly and dismissively. In a monopoly situation in a market-economy, where again the customer has paltry options, much the same happens; witness for example the cable company or the local electric utility. But even in an idyllic and open free-market with good competition and good options, imagine what happens to customers with no money and no capacity to make a purchase. Would they be treated well, or peremptorily shooed out of the store?
"The problem is it trains customers to throw a fit to get special treatment. "
that's at least part of it. Where I was if a complaint was valid they'd get $100 gift certificate. BUT a complaint could be enough to cause a bonus to be denied. In that case it can cause management to bend rules and shell out their own personal finance to hush them up. Picture standardized test scores/rearwards but for companies.
Some of it is outright cultish. I worked with some that had experience at circuit city. Supposedly their awards night had employees go to some Opera house where it was filled with actors/actresses as an audience applauding those getting rewards.
I don't understand how are culture is founded on freedom but when it comes to work we are suppose to bend over to customers or bosses even when they are wrong. It just brings stress to the employee and creates a negative environment. Why did American companies adopted this if its employees suffer the most and customers know that they can take advantage of the situation?
Simply because when they stop buying from you, your cash flows go down and you're out of business... So you do not need to bend over customers but you would need to find reasons to not do and still expect their cash flows.
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