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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.

legostepper , (edited )

deleted_by_author

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    Semi-Hemi-Demigod ,
    @Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

    Blackstone’s end goal is to make everyone a renter.

    Enigma ,

    The whole saying is actually “The customer is always right, in matters of taste.”

    warling ,

    This is the correct answer. All of the other explanations are dancing around this: no matter what YOU think of a particular product, if a customer is willing to buy it then YOUR opinion must be the wrong one.

    User_4272894 ,

    I think OPs point was the exact opposite. They give three examples where “matters of taste” are narratives guided by boardroom profit in the last twenty years rather than actual consumer preference.

    People didn’t want bigger cars. Corporations made bigger cars to circumvent American fuel efficiency regulations (because it’s cheaper to circumvent a law than it is to make a more efficient engine), and convinced consumers bigger is better. Size difference between the #1 selling truck in 1950 and 1990 is nothing compared to the difference between pre-CAFE and present day.

    People don’t want huge, fattening meals when they go out. It’s cheaper for companies to give “more”, “saltier”, and “fattier” meals than it is to create “tastier” ones, and for the most part we’ve been hoodwinked again. I’m talking about the “buy one for here get one free to take home” promotions at Applebee’s.

    People have been convinced owning a home is “the American dream”. Construction companies have found they can put a 2800sqft house on a .25 acre plot just as easily as they can a 1400sqft house, so that’s all they build. “Starter homes” aren’t as profitable as they used to be, so the companies are banking on the narrative they’ve created to force people out of apartments and into gigantic houses because it’s the “American dream”.

    Uranium3006 ,
    @Uranium3006@kbin.social avatar

    Breaking free of the brainwashing is great but then you're just PIMO the hellscape

    Uranium3006 ,
    @Uranium3006@kbin.social avatar

    Indeed. But it somehow morphed into "customers can abuse and harass staff at customer service jobs"

    DJArbz ,

    TIL

    Empricorn ,

    TBF, nobody unironically uses “the customer is always right”, other than entitled boomers who want to speak to the manager…

    echodot ,

    Inevitably the manager turns out to be some kid who isn’t any other than the staff member, and has no more authority anyway because the real powers that be are all in corporate offices.

    The manager only has any real power if the business is privately owned not a branch of some megacorp.

    Empricorn ,

    Hey, as that former low-level supervisor kid, I resemble that remark!

    moobythegoldensock ,

    No it’s not. The original coined saying is, “The customer is always right.” “In matters of taste” was added much later to try to temper the idiocy, and has never really widely caught on.

    Pelicanen ,

    Do you have a source for this? I have tried to search for it but haven’t found anything, I’m starting to suspect that it is apocryphal.

    intensely_human ,

    I thought it was “in matters of paste”

    Razorwire666 ,

    Most people misunderstand the meaning, it’s not each customer that is always rights, it’s the customer base as a hole, but even that is meaningless when everything is owned by a handful of monopolies so consumers don’t even have a choice.

    teft ,
    @teft@lemmy.world avatar

    The saying has been corrupted. Selfridge originally meant the saying to mean customer complaints should be treated seriously so that customers do not feel cheated or deceived. Nowadays people take it to mean the customer can do no wrong and is king of all he surveys.

    Rivalarrival ,

    More that the customer has ultimate veto power over any deal. You can do everything absolutely perfectly, and the (potential) customer can still decide the deal is “wrong” and walk away completely.

    You don’t have to convert every potential customer into an actual customer, but an actual customer will only convert if they believe they are “right”.

    An actual customer can do no wrong, but not everyone who walks through your doors is an actual customer.

    DigitalWebSlinger ,

    I always thought it was supposed to reference market sentiment.

    If your company is focused on X, but is also doing Y, and the market is really taking up with Y, you need to focus on keeping Y alive and well. Makes for a successful company to respect the market’s wishes, and allows you to pursue X while Y is subsidizing it.

    If you insist that X is the future, and put Y on the back burner to focus on X, well, the market will find a competitor who is doing Y better than you, and the market will abandon you.

    happyhippo ,

    Spez? Elon? You there guys?

    DigitalWebSlinger ,

    It really only applies if success of the company is your primary concern.

    echodot ,

    Notice how a delicate ego has no place in business?

    Carighan ,
    @Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

    A close friend works in a pet shop, and half the time the customer could not be more wrong or more of an asshole if their life depended on it, tbh.

    We need a new place in hell, staffed entirely by vampire monster bunnies, for parents who bring their kids to a pet shop to let them “play with” the animals there and knock on the glasses and shit.

    glad_cat , (edited )

    I don’t understand how a “rude customer” is related to “most people buy big cars.” Also, the customer is always right is an American thing, that may explain why I’m confused.

    Last but not least, I bought the smallest car available because I wanted this. Most people buy big cars because they are influenced by the things around them, it doesn’t mean that they are rude to the cashiers.

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