“The customer is always right” – yeah ok, whatever! Lol
I have owned my own business in the service, retail and production industry for 17 years and one thing I can promise you is that the customer is NOT always right!
After a certain amount of time and experience you learn to differentiate which customers are worth that extra mile and which ones simply aren’t worth even having! I have reached a stage in business where if I feel that a customer is actually costing me time or money unnecessarily, I will happily advise them to go elsewhere.
"But they contribute to your earnings" you might say... No, this is not always the case. Certain customers are so utterly taxing on your time that when you weigh it up against their spend value it is actually not worth the time, effort or the money.
Some of them are also just complete "problem children" and you will find that no matter how much you bend over backwards, they are never happy - often discovering that they have "company hopped" quite a bit too. ie. Their business relationships with most companies are short lived because they are A) never satisfied no matter how hard you try and/or B) the company they have been dealing with has reached the above conclusion and the customer has been forced to take their business elsewhere.
My current business has been around for 11 years now and as far as customer service goes, we have an absolutely flawless reputation. Our online presence verifies this with our countless reviews and five star rating... I owe this rating not only to my approach in terms of management but even more so to that of my team - and the reason they do their jobs so brilliantly is because they know I have their backs. I will NOT tolerate customers being abusive or unrealistically demanding towards them or to myself unnecessarily.
I had a customer like that this week.
We are a design and print business and if you ask us for a certain size end product then that is what we are going to give you. We are not going to supply you a half finished job, still "stepped up" on a flat sheet - we are OBVIOUSLY going to cut it and cutting has a fee - unless the customer specifically requests that we leave it in sheet form. (apologies for the possibly foreign language lol)
Now let me give you a little bit of background... This particular job was such a small order in terms of print quantity (and price lol) so everything had to be hand cut as it was too little for electric guillotining. Now hand cutting is labour intensive and very time consuming. I did her a huge favour by NOT charging an exorbitant amount for cutting but believe it or not... she STILL complained! Her cutting fee was R50 which is equivalent to about 3.8 us dollars. It was pittance!!!!
I agreed to reduce it for her but insisted that she please specify in future if she does NOT want us to cut her jobs for her.
She continued to complain even about R25...
This is where my tolerance hits zero. Despite her lack of logic on any level whatsoever and having absolutely no leg to stand on in terms of validating her complaint, I STILL attempted to accommodate her tantrum and offered the reduction in the already minimal cost.
I replied to her last email with this statement "How about we just scrap the entire invoice for you. You may collect your free goods whenever it is convenient for you."
This is essentially my way of saying - screw you! please come and collect your job and take your business elsewhere.
Not surprisingly, I got no response to that, but suddenly the full invoice was paid.
Now this was a mild scenario. We do, and I am sure many others deal with far more severe cases, but the principle is the same throughout. Assessing the frequency of her business, the value of each order and the amount of STRESS she causes every time my team has to deal with her, I have come to the conclusion that she is simply NOT worth having as a customer.
Although I don't think she will come back anyway, not after my last email... but if for some reason she was particularly stubborn and does, she will be very promptly assisted out the door. I will NOT do business with people like that. End of story! (almost lol)
Tough cookie I guess lol - but being in business for a long time toughens you up so that you can very swiftly get rid of the weeds in your garden. hehe :)
Excellent customer service is always on the top of my list but so is looking after my teams and customer relations should be respectful both ways - always.
Well that is what I think anyway :)
Until next time...
Much Love from Cape Town, South Africa xxx
If they are your customer, then they are always right. Refuse people to be your customer, and you won't have to carry around this negative mentality that "sometimes the customer is a twat", because to be frank...my dollar goes to the business that will accept doing business with me and doesn't hold such a negative mindset :)
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Thanks for your feedback @robertgenito :) Not at all negative... simply realistic :) Some customers COST a business money and no intelligent business person in their right mind would continue to serve such a client... it defeats the entire object of being in business in the first place. :)
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The 80:20 rule.
If you aren't careful:
80% of your customers are awesome and take 20% of your time.
20% of your customers are awful and take 80% of your time.
If you can identify the 20%, you are 100% successful.
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love love LOVE that! Brilliant!
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Very true even thought i do not run a business or deal with sales as such I see it in shops all t tie and your right some people are twats, had one recently in a supermarket ahead of me, weird thing is she was so bad I almost felt bad being the next one to be served
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those are the worst!!!!
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Ohh hell yes seems the whole world is against hem because the shop wont accept an expired coupon or something similar
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what they need to do... is GET A LIFE!!! lol
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Ohh yes I so agree!!!
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hehehehe :D
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And we have to deal with them in peace and say they are right and smile fake. lol
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sometimes... I am however the boss, so no... lol... I dont have to thankfully :)
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There are some people you just don't want to do business with. It is just better if some people move the hell on!
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absobloodylutely :)
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I've lived that for nearly 15 years my friend, everyday we had guests who were never satisfied, threatening us to write bad reviews on the hotel.
Nightmare really! Glad that i'm no more experiencing this now!
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A nightmare indeed! lol
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This post received a 1.5% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @jaynie! For more information, click here!
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With people so confused and self centered these days, you are correct they are not always right. As example a woman buys a dress to wear for an event, then the next day she returns it... that is theft.
The problem is that this stupid expression has been around so long, people believe it... luckily in my profession, I can just smack'em!
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waahahahaha! love it... and what profession is that? lol
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Professional Martial Artist and Health Therapist... but I can only smack'em in the Martial side. However an extra push on the nerve in the healing is always possible. Stand your ground.
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hehehehehe!!! lucky you! lol
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If it is worth it, then they are right. Well, it is up to you to decide. You the boss :DD
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thankfully lol :)
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😁😁😁
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i complety agree with you thanks for sharing
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and thank you for the lovely comment :)
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