For years I have used the question in interviews of employment candidates, “Is the customer always right?” It was a tricky question to answer, and it told me a lot about the experience and maturity level of the candidate. If the candidate answered yes, I knew they had not worked with many customers directly and for very long; or they were just telling me what I wanted to hear. Anyone who has worked directly with customers for very long and paying attention understands that customers only completely understand what they want and what it looks like to succeed for them. This concept has nothing to do with being right or good for the customer.

Customers don’t always choose what everyone else considers to be right or good for them, even when they are made aware of this fact. Success for them may look and feel very different than what we would project onto them.

A good example of this is the fellow that shows up every day at the local pub to feel better and ease his troubles. After a few drinks he has forgotten all about his miserable life and all its problems and has a pleasant, if not enjoyable evening. However, the next day the fellow wakes up to not only his same old miserable life, but that misery multiplier of a hangover. This customer is absolutely wrong in thinking buying drinks makes his life better. You may think less of the bartender for serving him when the bartender fully knows this is not helping his customer, and yet that is not really the concern of any bartender. The bartender’s job is to serve alcohol to patrons who want alcoholic drinks; it is not their job to give patrons advice about life and happiness (unless asked of course) even though that may very well be “the right thing” for the customer. A successful customer outcome for the average bar patron involves being served an alcoholic drink and not a life and happiness lecture.

There may be better examples, but hopefully you see the point. Being in the Information Technology support business for as long as I have, I can recite case upon case of customers insisting on technologies and practices that were absolutely the wrong solution at so many levels; yet every one of them was convinced of the rightness of that solution for them and their company, even after explaining the potential problems and risks. Nevertheless, the customer wants what they perceive as success and most often wants your business to assume the risk. An example of this is the taxi cab customer who is late for their flight and hints to the driver there will be a big tip for getting them to the airport in the most expeditious way, legal or not. Success to the customer is getting to the airport quickly even if it costs them an extra twenty bucks. If the driver succeeds, they both win. If the driver gets caught or in an accident, both are not likely to succeed, yet the greater consequences are on the driver. Put very simply, every customer wants to transfer varying amounts of risk to your business. Here we come to crux of the issue, business is all about risk.

Obviously, every business proposition has associated risks. If you are not assuming risks, then where is your value proposition? The transfer of risk is what every business is based on. For example, you are willing to pay a professional to cut your hair because the alternatives of cutting your own hair or having your cousin Bubba cut your hair are typically (not always) more risky. Also, most people are willing to pay an automobile dealer for a car rather than try to build one themselves. The risks of the latter, even if you have the skills, are significant. Therefore, all economic exchange is based on the transfer of risk; potential customers are always looking to heap as much risk on the business as they can.

When I hear companies saying their customers always want too much or that customers don’t get it, I can’t help but think it isn’t the customer that’s the problem. It’s the company that “doesn’t get it.” If they indeed got it, they would clearly understand who their customer is and the amount of risk transfer those customers expect, and have the products and/or services to match. Companies that say these types of things are so inside-out.

So, the customer is NOT always right. Get over it! What is important, as Steve Towers and Terry Schurter will tell you, is that “customers get to succeed.” What matters is not if they are right or wrong, but in the acceptability or profitability of the transfer of risk. If you are clear in presenting your value proposition, or the risk you are reasonably willing to accept for the price that is profitable for the company and deliver on it, then your customer and company succeeds. Also, if you are doing a good job of communicating your value proposition, like say Southwest Airlines does, your non-customers will know they are not your customer and stay away. For more on that, see my prior post “Who’s your customer, who’s not and why you need to know.”

Don Smith, CPP Lead Coach

Director - International Process and Performance Institute
www.ipapi.org