If “the customer is always right”, Why Do We Get the Shaft?
This is an argument that I love to get into anytime I hear it. I think that back in the day, a customer was worth it’s weight in gold to any business. But these days, I don’t feel it’s the same. With fraud and scams everywhere you go, saying that you believe what every customer is saying is right, is just too hard for me to swallow.
Picture your cable is off, you decide to call the “help” desk to have them check on their end. You have already gone through every step you always do when this happens. You do this because you KNOW they are going to make you do it before they check on their end. Now, you are calling the 800 number to get “help”. After a series of menus, entering the account number and pressing the # sign, you just might be able to talk to a real person. Now, if this person is in the right department for you to get “help”, you scored. Usually, the menus are so general, you chose the wrong one, now you are getting transferred all over the place.
The reason I say that the customer gets screwed, is because, we have to jump through hoops to get the “help” we need, if it’s not GENERAL help. When has your cable gone off and all you needed was GENERAL “help” that an automated menu can provide? Almost never, right?
Screw it up for the rest of us.
There are people that take “the customer is always right” a little too far. These customers are buying clothes from store 1 and returning them at store 2. Stating they didn’t fit & I lost my reciept or they were a gift & I lost the gift receipt. The clerk, having to take their word for it, issues the return and the customer is (usually) granted store credit. How wrong is that? All of the honest customers get the shaft and are questioned about certain things because now retailers are starting to see the games that are played.
I can’t believe that if the customer is always right and that keeping a customer at any cost, we (as customers) would have to jump through these hoops just to get assistance. Automated menus are ridiculous, don’t you think? If they want my business, I want to hear a human voice. By putting us through the menu loop, companies are saying this; “their problem is so minor that we can’t waste resources with helping them out, let them go through the menu, IF that doesn’t help, then connect them to a live operator.” If I have a problem, you better help. The reason is simple, I know at least 10 people and I will tell all 10 of my bad experience. And guess what, that doesn’t include the 1,000′s I can meet up with online to chat about getting the shaft.
So if there are any business owners, managers or supervisors readying this, GET BACK TO WORK, and listen to the customer, they are ALWAYS right!