The Customer Is Not Always Rght

I have just returned from three enjoyable days working with a small European telco. The energy, creativity and focus of senior management was amazing. They are a living example of how an incumbent PTT need not become tired and resigned to the gradual attrition of customers to new competitors. And how they can fight back from a position of strength. But more on that later...

An old saw goes something like, "there are two rules of customer service: Rule 1, the customer is always right. Rule 2, if in any doubt refer to Rule 1."

But is this always true?

On the way home, my flight to Frankfurt stopped at Zürich to let some passengers off and to pick-up some new ones. Those of us en-route to Frankfurt had to stay on-board for 40 minutes whilst the plane was re-provisioned and the new passengers boarded.

Some of the en-route passengers clearly did not understand why things were organised this way and started to kick-up a fuss about disembarking, despite being told clearly that they must wait on the plane (due to EU regulations). A minority of the passengers became quite agitated after 20 minutes waiting and complained vocally about the cabin crew's unhelpfulness and unfriendliness and the airline's general incompetence. And an even smaller minority even started arguments with cabin staff over seeming trivia.

I checked in my travel documents and it stated quite clearly that the plane would stop in Zürich and that the stop would take 40 minutes. It didn't state that passengers must stay on board. But cabin crew did and explained why.

The passengers who complained loudest either had incomplete travel information (hardly the airline's fault), hadn't read it (hardly the airline's fault either) or just didn't want to abide by the rules (again hardly the airline's fault). These passengers hadn't completed their part of the bargain: they were too busy complaining about their 'rights' as passengers, to bother about their associated 'responsibilities'. They were clearly in the wrong.

In contrast to these passengers, cabin staff remained helpful, polite and calm throughout the whole episode. Even when a small minority of customers were downright rude. I suspect that they had seen this all before, but it didn't show.

Sometimes customers do not carry out their part of the bargain. Sometimes they are stupid. And sometimes they are just plain selfish. Good customer service staff have to put up with this sort of behaviour from customers all the time. The best, just like the airline staff, do it with a certain calmness and charm that we could all learn from.

What do you think? Is the customer always right? Or are some customers a right royal pain...?

Post a response and get the conversation going.

Graham Hill