Phrases I hate (pt. 1)

[kierthos]

"The customer is always right."

No, they're not. Sometimes the customer will be right.

Sometimes the customer will be wrong out of genuine ignorance (lack of knowledge).

Sometimes the customer will be wrong out of stupidity (not using the knowledge they have).

Sometimes the customer will be wrong out of malice.

The first two can be solved with application or re-application of knowledge. The last can be solved with a 2x4.

Comments

[cuddlycthulhu]

I've worked at three places where the philosophy was the customer was never right.

The first was a call center because, when faced with having to leave someone a message, the callers would lie through their teeth or demand all kinds of crazy things (especially the people calling in off hours for their property manager when they were locked out of their apartments; most specified no calls for lock outs ever).

The second was the County of Santa Cruz when I was in the elections department because the average customer was ignorant of what we did or could do.

The third was for an HMO when I was in their inbound patient call center. In that setting the caller was never right because they would describe what could be very serious situations medically and then refuse to speak to a medical professional. I had one woman call up wanting psychiatry to make an appointment and, while I was going through the standard "red flag" questions, admit she was feeling suicidal, which has an outcome of going to an advice nurse for evaluation. Only she didn't want an advice nurse, she wanted psychiatry, and she told me so using a lot of profanity. So I lied to her, said I'd transfer her to psychiatry, rang her through to a nurse, gave the nurse a heads up, and transferred the call. Turns out she later tried to get me fired, there was an investigation, and I was vindicated because, even though I lied to her, I followed correct procedure. If I'd done what she wanted I would've been fired.

[dreamshade]

"The customer is always right" is a phrase uttered by two types of people: (1), customers, when asking for something inappropriate, and (2), salesmen, when trying to sell you something that you don't want.

[mithras]

And dickhead managers/coworkers who are trying to make life more difficult for others.