Customer is always right

Customer is Always Right!

Perhaps you listened the business adage:

Customer is always right. 

This week I share the history behind this adage. 

Some days after open the Stew Leonard store in 1960, suddenly a customer came up to Mr. Stew and said, "Your eggnog is sour!" and returned a half gallon. 

Stew exclaimed: "My eggnog is sour, from my brand new dairy plant? Impossible! You're wrong!" 

So, he continued - "We've sold over 200 half-gallons of eggnog from this batch and you're the only one who's complained!"

In this point, the customer nervous and angry, said: "I don't care how many cartons you sold, it's sour and I want my money back!"

Eggnog was 95 cents per half gallon so Stew reached into his pocket and gave the customer a dollar bill. She received the money and the last words he heard her say were, "I'm never coming back tho this store again!"

In home, Stew relayed this story to his wife, Marianne, and she, too became upset with him.
"I don't blame her at all," said Marianne. "You didn't listen to her. You contradicted her and practically called her a liar. I hope you are not going to run your store like other store managers, who think all customers are trying to put something over on them. They don't trust us, but we fix them - WE JUST NEVER GO BACK!"

He realized that most customers were honest and wouldn't try to take advantage of him. However, if he tried to protect himself from the one percent who were dishonest, he'd end up penalizing the other 99 percent who were really good and honest! He could not afford to lose a single customer by telling them they were wrong.

Stew recognized Marianne was right and decided that no customer was ever going to be wrong in my store again.

On his way to work one morning, Stew drove by a monument yard, where they were unloading granite. 

Suddenly, Stew got an idea. He stopped and bought a huge slab of granite from Mr. Bates. It weighed 6,000 pounds. 

Then Stew had him deliver the rock to the front door of his store, and had their stonemason chisel the store's new policy into its face:

Rule 1 The Customer Is Always Right!


Rule 2 : If The Customer Is Ever Wrong, Reread Rule 1.

The most lesson about this is that any customer have value, and all business need each customer. How much cost a customer? We need understand the true value for our business. We can see the value our customers in two ways:

1. Cost to give them good customer service and,
2. The financial value of each customer spend with us and the potential if we try to increase that value.

We need to carefully and consistently train our employees to serve customers well, this training should involve reinforcing in the employees’ minds the importance of customers; teaching employees to greet customers, identify their needs, and help them find the products that can satisfy those needs; and encouraging employees to treat every customer with respect. 

Constant, frequent and consistent training will help ensure that employees develop and maintain the proper perspective on customer service.

Why that?

“If you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will.”