Is the customer always right?
revisited
Yes! Maybe? Perhaps? No!
Not so long ago (actually more years ago than I want to remember), while delivering one of my first lectures concerning working in the Hospitality Industry, during an informal question and answer period concerning hotel staff etiquette and comportment with guests, a young female questioner asked me whether the customer was always right.
My immediate answer was yes, and I went on to justify that yes with the time-honored reason and rationale that, in essence, the bottom line of any business that relies on the paying public for its success, then yes, the customer is always right, and for those of you that want to work in the hospitality industry, you must put forth your best effort to satisfy customer complaints, in the best professional a manner as possible.
I would like to think, to believe, that most of us in this business do exactly that—resolve the customers’ complaints to their satisfaction—ideally, mutual satisfaction.
Later, though, as I was relaxing over a cup of coffee in an almost empty well-known coffee house, that question of whether the customer is always right came back into my conscious mind.
I told myself that yes, I had given the proper answer; it’s the same answer that had been pounded into my head hour after hour of Hospitality Management course lectures, instructions, training sessions, as well as the same answer I insisted the people I was in charge of followed.
But then, like the first rays of light welcoming a new day, it dawned upon me that the answer I had given that young questioner had become a mechanical answer; a by rote answer, and that, perhaps, it was no longer applicable in today’s service industry—at least to the extent that it used to be!
"The customer is always right", for want of a better way of putting it, is the motto or slogan of the hospitality industry, and the motto that has been drummed into countless heads at all levels of the industry, so much so that it’s “implemented” almost always without question . . . and without realizing the real consequences that action engenders on all parties.
The motto comes to us via successful retail store founders Marshall Field, Harry G. Selfridge, and John Wanamaker—entrepreneurs who made a name and reputation for themselves and their enterprises over 100 years ago, during a time when advertising claims and good business practices were more fiction than fact.
They all took customer complaints seriously, for they realized that to be successful they needed customers to return; also, in resolving complaints satisfactory to the client, even if it meant a loss to the store, that customer would tell his or her friends about it, and they, in turn, would shop at the same store, knowing that they would be treated fairly.
The same applies to the hospitality industry and, I would argue, even more so than in the retail world, especially when it comes to word-of-mouth advertising, as it’s no longer just a few friends you talk to face-to-face but a whole three-dimensional chain consisting of tens, hundreds, thousands of links strong via instant messaging services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
And it’s world-wide!
In this modern world where every hotelier, no matter what kind, has to fight to satisfy the heart and soul of every guest, and the guests know this, then we in the hospitality business need to reconsider whether “the customer is always right” is applicable today as much as it was yesterday.
I say NO IT’S NOT!
In too many instances, and perhaps now it’s the cynic in me talking, too many guests, from all ranks of society, take undue advantage of “the customer is always right” for no other reason than to crow to their friends that they “got away with something.”
The sad part is, is that they seem proud of what they “got away with!”
There are too many general managers and/or customer relations people that are willing to kowtow and grovel before the customer for the sake of complying with the motto, and for no other reason.
Fairness to the employee at the receiving end of the complaint or the validity of the complaint has little to nothing to do with the outcome.
Invariably, all customer complaints are directed to the person providing the customer a service: doorman, bellman, porter, registration desk person, concierge, housekeeping, waiter/waitress, etc., in other words, the complaints are directed at the very people that are, to use a military metaphor, fighting in the trenches day in and day out, but with one very important difference—not a one of them have been given a weapon of any kind to defend themselves!
Before I expand on the above scenario, I want to make clear that the type of customer complaints I’m referring to are those made via raised voice, feigned anger, and in a public area, i.e., lobby, registration desk, restaurant, etc.
In my experience, most complaints I fielded during my active years in this business were from customers wanting to bring to my attention a problem they saw or experienced not to get something out of it, but in seeing that it did not happen again to them or to anybody else.
In other words, they were more interested in helping my establishment and my people be better at performing their jobs.
Unfortunately, every once in a while, though seemingly more often today than yesterday, enter, let’s say, the professional hustler and scam artist, whose sole intent, through deliberate loutish, churlish behavior, is to get something for nothing.
For those of you who’ve been in this business for any length of time or came up through the ranks, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
In my early managing years—my green years—I followed “the customer is right” dictum ninety-nine percent of the time and never thought much about what really happened, I seldom if ever took the time to listen to the hapless employee’s side of the story, and, the truth be known, all I really wanted was for the complaint and complainant to go away as fast as possible so my boss wouldn’t hear about it.
I soon learned, though, after a couple of more customer confrontation issues, that the most important part of any confrontation was listening, really listening, to all sides of the confrontation and only then putting into action a swift solution.
If my employee is at fault—find out why after the customer is dealt with.
If the customer is at fault—ask him or her for a solution to the problem, and if he or she cannot offer a solution, then it’s bye-bye time for the customer, and if the customer does offer a solution, make sure it’s agreeable to all parties.
· The day of the free lunch is gone, it’s time for both businesses and customers to be accountable, to be held accountable, for their actions!
· Good leadership, good management, dictates that you don’t assume your employees did something wrong!
· Good leadership, good management, dictates that you first find out the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, and then come to a decision.
In doing so, the aggrieved customer may realize that management is attempting to find out what really happened, thus allaying his or her fears that “nothing will change or be done;” and in doing so, the aggrieved employee will realize that the arbiter is interested in finding out the truth—in other words, “he has my back.”
One of the best leadership principles I learned while on active duty with the U.S. Navy was that all problems that might come my way I should attempt to resolve them at my level, and only go to a higher level as a last resort.
I took that principle to heart and it served me well during the rest of my enlistment; and also it was good training for my peers and the people that worked for me when I finally got into a leadership position.
In fact, all employees should be given training in conflict resolution techniques, from the lowest paid employee to the highest paid employee.
In doing so and in letting your employees deal with the problems at their level, you will not only have less escalated problems, but you will have a more motivated and confident employee that knows he has the backing of his boss.
Happy employees are steady employees.
So, in retrospect, if I had the opportunity to reencounter that young female questioner of long ago and she asked me the same question, I would say that:
Yes, the customer is always right . . . but . . .!
The hotel Guy
revisited
Yes! Maybe? Perhaps? No!
Not so long ago (actually more years ago than I want to remember), while delivering one of my first lectures concerning working in the Hospitality Industry, during an informal question and answer period concerning hotel staff etiquette and comportment with guests, a young female questioner asked me whether the customer was always right.
My immediate answer was yes, and I went on to justify that yes with the time-honored reason and rationale that, in essence, the bottom line of any business that relies on the paying public for its success, then yes, the customer is always right, and for those of you that want to work in the hospitality industry, you must put forth your best effort to satisfy customer complaints, in the best professional a manner as possible.
I would like to think, to believe, that most of us in this business do exactly that—resolve the customers’ complaints to their satisfaction—ideally, mutual satisfaction.
Later, though, as I was relaxing over a cup of coffee in an almost empty well-known coffee house, that question of whether the customer is always right came back into my conscious mind.
I told myself that yes, I had given the proper answer; it’s the same answer that had been pounded into my head hour after hour of Hospitality Management course lectures, instructions, training sessions, as well as the same answer I insisted the people I was in charge of followed.
But then, like the first rays of light welcoming a new day, it dawned upon me that the answer I had given that young questioner had become a mechanical answer; a by rote answer, and that, perhaps, it was no longer applicable in today’s service industry—at least to the extent that it used to be!
"The customer is always right", for want of a better way of putting it, is the motto or slogan of the hospitality industry, and the motto that has been drummed into countless heads at all levels of the industry, so much so that it’s “implemented” almost always without question . . . and without realizing the real consequences that action engenders on all parties.
The motto comes to us via successful retail store founders Marshall Field, Harry G. Selfridge, and John Wanamaker—entrepreneurs who made a name and reputation for themselves and their enterprises over 100 years ago, during a time when advertising claims and good business practices were more fiction than fact.
They all took customer complaints seriously, for they realized that to be successful they needed customers to return; also, in resolving complaints satisfactory to the client, even if it meant a loss to the store, that customer would tell his or her friends about it, and they, in turn, would shop at the same store, knowing that they would be treated fairly.
The same applies to the hospitality industry and, I would argue, even more so than in the retail world, especially when it comes to word-of-mouth advertising, as it’s no longer just a few friends you talk to face-to-face but a whole three-dimensional chain consisting of tens, hundreds, thousands of links strong via instant messaging services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
And it’s world-wide!
In this modern world where every hotelier, no matter what kind, has to fight to satisfy the heart and soul of every guest, and the guests know this, then we in the hospitality business need to reconsider whether “the customer is always right” is applicable today as much as it was yesterday.
I say NO IT’S NOT!
In too many instances, and perhaps now it’s the cynic in me talking, too many guests, from all ranks of society, take undue advantage of “the customer is always right” for no other reason than to crow to their friends that they “got away with something.”
The sad part is, is that they seem proud of what they “got away with!”
There are too many general managers and/or customer relations people that are willing to kowtow and grovel before the customer for the sake of complying with the motto, and for no other reason.
Fairness to the employee at the receiving end of the complaint or the validity of the complaint has little to nothing to do with the outcome.
Invariably, all customer complaints are directed to the person providing the customer a service: doorman, bellman, porter, registration desk person, concierge, housekeeping, waiter/waitress, etc., in other words, the complaints are directed at the very people that are, to use a military metaphor, fighting in the trenches day in and day out, but with one very important difference—not a one of them have been given a weapon of any kind to defend themselves!
Before I expand on the above scenario, I want to make clear that the type of customer complaints I’m referring to are those made via raised voice, feigned anger, and in a public area, i.e., lobby, registration desk, restaurant, etc.
In my experience, most complaints I fielded during my active years in this business were from customers wanting to bring to my attention a problem they saw or experienced not to get something out of it, but in seeing that it did not happen again to them or to anybody else.
In other words, they were more interested in helping my establishment and my people be better at performing their jobs.
Unfortunately, every once in a while, though seemingly more often today than yesterday, enter, let’s say, the professional hustler and scam artist, whose sole intent, through deliberate loutish, churlish behavior, is to get something for nothing.
For those of you who’ve been in this business for any length of time or came up through the ranks, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
In my early managing years—my green years—I followed “the customer is right” dictum ninety-nine percent of the time and never thought much about what really happened, I seldom if ever took the time to listen to the hapless employee’s side of the story, and, the truth be known, all I really wanted was for the complaint and complainant to go away as fast as possible so my boss wouldn’t hear about it.
I soon learned, though, after a couple of more customer confrontation issues, that the most important part of any confrontation was listening, really listening, to all sides of the confrontation and only then putting into action a swift solution.
If my employee is at fault—find out why after the customer is dealt with.
If the customer is at fault—ask him or her for a solution to the problem, and if he or she cannot offer a solution, then it’s bye-bye time for the customer, and if the customer does offer a solution, make sure it’s agreeable to all parties.
· The day of the free lunch is gone, it’s time for both businesses and customers to be accountable, to be held accountable, for their actions!
· Good leadership, good management, dictates that you don’t assume your employees did something wrong!
· Good leadership, good management, dictates that you first find out the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, and then come to a decision.
In doing so, the aggrieved customer may realize that management is attempting to find out what really happened, thus allaying his or her fears that “nothing will change or be done;” and in doing so, the aggrieved employee will realize that the arbiter is interested in finding out the truth—in other words, “he has my back.”
One of the best leadership principles I learned while on active duty with the U.S. Navy was that all problems that might come my way I should attempt to resolve them at my level, and only go to a higher level as a last resort.
I took that principle to heart and it served me well during the rest of my enlistment; and also it was good training for my peers and the people that worked for me when I finally got into a leadership position.
In fact, all employees should be given training in conflict resolution techniques, from the lowest paid employee to the highest paid employee.
In doing so and in letting your employees deal with the problems at their level, you will not only have less escalated problems, but you will have a more motivated and confident employee that knows he has the backing of his boss.
Happy employees are steady employees.
So, in retrospect, if I had the opportunity to reencounter that young female questioner of long ago and she asked me the same question, I would say that:
Yes, the customer is always right . . . but . . .!
The hotel Guy