Is the customer always right?

The customer is always right. This is phrase that goes back more than 100 years and is generally thought to have been created by Marshall Field, the man who opened the store that was to become Macy’s. Since then, it has become accepted as the attitude that defines whether or not an establishment understands how to treat their customers. But is it out-dated?

Many large retail stores have noticed a trend during the past decade wherein the percentage of questionable returns, broken merchandise and issues with angry customers has drastically increased. This translates to several million dollars in lost revenue. The result has been a growing number of businesses that are starting to identify and train their staff about the “bad customer.”

These are people stores are starting to identify as those who actually cost the business money in either questionable returned products or unacceptable behavior. In this aspect, these stores have begun to view their relationships with customers in terms more akin to a business partnership and are beginning more and more to politely — but firmly — choose to end the relationship. In Washington state, I witnessed a large retail store manager accept a customer’s return only to then inform the customer that “after this return, we will no longer be accepting exchanges or returns from you and hereby inform you that in the future we ask you to take your business elsewhere.”

Oh my.

But what led to this? One study indicates that we have been told “the customer is always right” for so long that we now take it literally. Many people believe their demands should be upheld by the business no matter how unrealistic. A large percentage of American consumers think that if they yell loudly enough or make a big enough scene, the store clerk will eventually give in.

I visited a local firearms store a while back and watched a man trying to return a rifle he had purchased a few days prior. Apparently, he had fired it a few times, then simply changed his mind and didn’t want it anymore. What he was evidently expecting was to return it much as one might return shoes or a blender. But when he was politely informed there was no returning a firearm, he became furious and began to substitute volume for reason and logic. Even other customers began asking the man to calm down, tried to explain the rules for transferring possession of a firearm, but to no avail.

As the red-faced man grabbed his rifle off the counter and stormed out of the store, the last thing he yelled was, “I guess you’ve never heard the saying ‘the customer is always right!’ There’s no way your store is going to last with such lousy customer service!” Apparently, this man believed his desires trumped laws, statutes and regulations involving the legal transfer of possession for a firearm.

Another study points to the younger generations as being the culprit. According to their data, there is a far greater sense of entitlement with Generation Y and younger people. They are used to instant answers, instant data, instant results and instant gratification and when they don’t get it, things can get ugly. This has translated into more confrontations at the cash register and return counter. It has also generated a far greater loss of revenue for large chain stores in the form of returned broken merchandise or items that cannot be resold at full value. Stores even factored in the cost of wages for employees to restock returned items and were alarmed at the difference for older generations vs. younger ones.

In addition to using new policies to track “bad customers,” many large corporations are now retraining employees to understand that the best way to deal with a dissatisfied customer is with empathy. They want better communication skills to let customers know that they are being heard and their complaints are being met with understanding, even if they can’t give them what they want.

They are finding this to be more difficult than anticipated. When dealing with an upset person, it’s human nature to instantly adopt a defensive posture and begin to prepare an answer long before the customer has finished airing his/her grievance. Many employees use a tactic of trying to strictly adhere to company policy before reaching a “breakdown point” where, because the customer is always right, the rules are set aside and the customer’s wish is granted. Using new methods and training, the hope is that people will recognize that the business will try to do everything it possibly can while still adhering to rules and policy. To assist in that, many large businesses are making some polices more flexible to give their staffs more leeway in working with an upset customer. The hope is that there will be less confrontation and more opportunity to make a customer for life.

Although stores don’t like to openly state it, they are also hoping to retrain a new generation of customers that they may not always be right. It should prove interesting to see if these new methods find their way to Alaska. Maybe they already have and I haven’t noticed yet. If so, it should also be interesting to see what kind of reception they get and what the results are for the stores and their bottom line.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column under the tagline “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist.