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We should stop saying "The customer is always right" because it's not true

In the grand scheme of things, the customer may have slightly more pull than the cashier ringing up their order, but it’s the CEO and the board of directors that control the narrative. That’s why we’re getting bigger and less fuel efficient vehicles, bigger and more fattening meal portions in restaurants, and bigger less affordable houses.

Corkyskog ,

Other people have covered the true definition, so let me pick apart your examples.

Bigger and less fuel efficient vehicles are being produced because of fleet emission standards, as trucks and SUVS don’t count towards your “fleet” lineup. So companies are producing and pushing these hard, otherwise they will need to go mostly electric very quickly to meet emission standards. (It’s stupid I know, but blame lobbying and very old policies made to protect the American truck market).

Bigger and more fattening meals are being produced because they can charge more and using less healthy ingredients is typically cheaper. Much of the cost of your meal is the labor. So restaurants would rather serve you 4x the average serving size of your favorite pasta dish for $26 than a healthy portion for $18. The cost difference for the ingredients are nearly negligible compared to overhead and labor.

All of this is about profits, no one actually asked for any of this (and good luck making businesses go backwards and give up profits). I don’t know the specifics regarding the housing market and the trend towards building mcmansions, but I would bet there is a profit incentive and it’s not purely demand driven as well.

kaotic ,

The full quote is “The customer is always right in matters of taste.”

Hypersapien ,

And it was never a saying, it was a commercial tagline.

Chiller ,

notalwaysright.com/working/

The site has expanded to other not always right things 👍

PunnyName ,

In matters of taste.

They’re still idiots. But people forget that second part, and become extremely entitled little shits.

Case ,

The problem isn’t the customer’s expectations (within rational limits of course) the problem is all the levels of managent giving the customer satisfaction because they don’t understans, and always forget thr last part about taste.

I know, that if I go to a Walmart and start a big enough fuss, Walmart will give as little as they can (to often monetarily desperate) to get them to stop causing a scene.

I worked in electronics, and per protocol had to inspect a returned PS2. It was physically beat up, had paint splotches on it, and it would not power on, and thr serial number was missing.

I said no. Simple as that. Not paid enough to fight customers. They wanted a manager. Two hours later they walked out with fucking cash.

dynamojoe ,

The trick is finding which customers are entitled idiots and un-customer them.

p_diablo ,

We became much better at doing that during covid. We all have enough stress already, we don’t need to take yours too!

autumn_rain ,

I think the saying is an abstract concept and began because the customer is always right if the business is doing well or not, but somehow the meaning got twisted around to an abomination of “Customer is entitled to bully, throw a tantrum and be arrogant and demanding.”

Pancito ,
@Pancito@lemmy.world avatar

As a German I had a good loud laugh about that.

echodot ,

Basically anyone living in a country older than about 150 years, has to deal with 17th century housing stock. My house wasn’t originally constructed with indoor plumbing, that was added later. And not well may I add.

Pancito ,
@Pancito@lemmy.world avatar

Sorry I mean the whole idea of the customer is always right . You mostly have shitty treatment here.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Do you mean the shitty customers get shitty treatment? My experience with shopping while in Germany was no different than at home in the US. Except the one store I went to where no one spoke English and I had to ask a random person outside for help. But, I mean… I’m not one of those jackass customers 🤷🏻‍♂️

Pancito ,
@Pancito@lemmy.world avatar

No, I mean entering a bakery and being ignored or the staff is annoyed with you before you say a word.

At the bike shop they get annoyed because the breaks of your beater bike are rusty.

At the Deutsche Bahn, they get annoyed with you if their train came late, so you miss your last connection and be stranded, so you ask how to solve this problem.

Of course most interaction are neutral and the bad ones just stick to memory.

I’m happy for you that you were lucky, I traveled a lot in the western world and had nowhere an experience as bad as the general experience here. Maybe in the Netherlands and Belgium.

We are kinda infamous for bad customer service. And there are 100s of experiences you find on Google. Like this:

iamexpat.de/…/expat-survival-guide-phoning-custom… .

moobythegoldensock ,

“The customer is always right” is a bad maxim, just like “caveat emptor” that it replaced was a bad maxim.

A better one should be something like, “Valid customer complains should be taken seriously.” Sometimes business do something wrong and should have to fix them; other times, customers are full of it and should be informed as such.

HeckGazer ,

Maybe because that’s not the full quote and you’re misunderstanding the meaning. This is like when people think “survival of the fittest” means the strongest/fastest etc.

moobythegoldensock ,

It is the full quote and OP is not misunderstanding its meaning.

en.wikipedia.org/…/The_customer_is_always_right

You’re thinking of a later retort that was added to try to change the quote.

intensely_human ,

You’ve got a point but remember what we say, The aphorism is always right.

So let’s cool it with the anti-aphorism talk eh?

PeriodicallyPedantic ,

the customer is always an asshole

Although perhaps that’s not the best example of a service worker lol

PipedLinkBot ,

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): piped.video/XOXAs9o3xUE?t=30s

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.

OpenStars ,
@OpenStars@kbin.social avatar

That saying was not meant to be interpreted as literally true - it was designed to extract more money from customers who would generate repeat business = moar profits.

ZephyrXero ,

“The Customer is Always Right” originally referred to the pricing of an item. Meaning if the customer thinks it’s a good price, then you’ve picked a good price. That’s it. It was never meant to be used as an excuse to bend over backwards to your customer’s every whim

Buddahriffic ,

I thought it was more about the design in the context of working with a client to make a custom product where they tell you the purpose and give you specs, you see that the product they are asking for sucks for the stated purpose and try to point that out but they argue it. At that point, just make the product they are asking for and let them sort out the rest. It’ll probably mean more money for you because they’ll be back to ask for the changes you originally suggested. Or who knows, maybe they are actually right.

moobythegoldensock ,

No it didn’t. It always referred to customer service.

YourHuckleberry ,

Damn it. I fell for another stupid internet fallacy.

downpunxx ,
@downpunxx@kbin.social avatar

The maxim "The Customer is always right" comes from management and or ownership of a customer/retail business whose purpose was to promote the feeling in current and potential customers, that their needs were paramount to all other concerns, as a way for the business to procure and retain more customers, so that the business thrives and profit is made.

Employees feelings and work environment were purposefully ignored as being far less important than the income generated from customers who experience complete satisfaction in the transaction of money for goods and services, and can depend on their being equitable recompense should any issue or problem occur, to their ultimate benefit.

This was never an employee concerned protocol, only a customer and profit driven protocol, which businesses employed, and still sometimes employ.

GunnarRunnar ,

Is it even widely used anymore?

Squirrel ,
@Squirrel@thelemmy.club avatar

Only by asshole customers.

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