Who invented the saying the customer is always right

Love, Herb. The phrase "The customer is always right" was originally coined in by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge's department store in London, and is typically used by businesses to convince customers that they will get good service at this company and convince employees to give customers good service.

However, I think businesses should abandon this phrase once and for all -- ironically, because it leads to worse customer service. Gordon Bethune is a brash Texan as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally who is best known for turning Continental Airlines around "From Worst to First," a story told in his book of the same title from He wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that the maxim "the customer is always right" didn't hold sway at Continental.

In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side with his people. Here's how he put it:. When we run into customers that we can't reel back in, our loyalty is with our employees. They have to put up with this stuff every day. Just because you buy a ticket does not give you the right to abuse our employees We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks.

When it's a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on? You can't treat your employees like serfs. You have to value them If they think that you won't support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment. So Bethune trusted his people over unreasonable customers.

What I like about this attitude is that it balances employees and customers. The "always right" maxim squarely favors the customer which is a bad idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes resentment among employees. Of course, there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service but trying to solve this by declaring the customer "always right" is counter-productive.

Using the slogan "The customer is always right," abusive customers can demand just about anything -- they're right by definition, aren't they?

This makes the employees' jobs that much harder when trying to rein them in. Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back. Most businesses think that "the more customers the better". But some customers are quite simply bad for business.

One of our service technicians arrived at a customer's site for a maintenance task, and to his great shock was treated very rudely by the customer. When he'd finished the task and returned to the office, he told management about his experience. They promptly cancelled the customer's contract. At a certain point, you need to decide if it is better to lose one customer than the loyalty and support of your workforce.

It is merely a matter of respecting your employees and treating them with dignity. Founder of bookbyslot. Employees are much happier and satisfied at work if you put them first. When your workforce is happy , they are much more likely to put your customers first. They will be more energetic, motivated, and more willing to interact with customers.

This creates a pleasant environment for both the employee and the customer. The customer often thinks they know better than employees or share an opinion or advice on how the business should operate or how a product should work.

Some can be quite insistent and belligerent. The owner of a company, management, and properly-trained staff know the most about the product or service they provide.

It is, after all, their job to know. Many times, when a product or service does not work as they expect, a customer can become entirely unrealistic or demand ridiculous solutions. The goal should be to stress to these customers professionally that the makers of the product or service are the final authority on its operations and services. The bottom line: business has changed significantly over the past few decades and many are putting more of an emphasis on employee happiness.

It has proven to be an effective method to increase sales and improve customer loyalty. While it may be hard to adopt this new mindset, it can be incredibly beneficial to your business both in the short and long term. Employee productivity is crucial for any business as it becomes almost impossible to grow with a lethargic and demotivated workforce…. As a small business owner, it is always difficult to determine where income should be spent. A specifically difficult financial….

Every project, whether done in an office or out in the field, should be completed within a specified time frame…. Blake Morgan is a keynote speaker, futurist and author of "More Is More. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Nov 11, , pm EST. Nov 11, , am EST.

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