The Customer is Always Right…

Listed on April 17, 2013 in Blogs!

We have all heard of the saying that the customer is always right. Well, most of us working in business and especially those of us working directly with customers will know that this isn’t the case. I am sure the saying came out of the intention of giving customers the feeling that they were being listened to and that therefore, they always had a point and so, they were right. Recently a person turned up at the front door somewhat unexpectedly saying they had booked accommodation. We had no record of the booking and we thought we had made some dreadful oversight. The customer was understandably fuming that we had made a mistake and words were expressed along the lines that we couldn’t organise the proverbial party in a brewery. We rushed to prepare a bedroom, quickly cleaning our very best room, changing the sheets and towels etc. Our apologies were profuse and without qualification! Then, after producing the paperwork (yes, we should have asked to see it first, I know) there was the realisation on the part of our unexpected guest that they had, in fact, been booked into a nearby hotel and were not meant to be staying with us at all. Oh joy, the moment must have been wondrous. It wasn’t our fault at all – the customer was wrong! They did at least stay in the freshly prepared room and rightly paid for the pleasure. I will leave you guessing as to whether we had an apology.