The Customer's NOT Always Right!

"The customer's always right!”

I'm amazed at just how often I hear those words coming from the mouths of otherwise smart, logical people who run successful businesses. And even more amazingly, they actually think they believe it, too!

I've heard supposed “certified experts” in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) use that tired old chestnut as the primary theme of high-priced, long-winded books, CD's, seminars and lectures. They tell you all about how “the customer knows best” and how we all need to “mine the customer's mind” if we hope to build Customer Relationships.

Not me.

I've worked with too many customers in too many situations for too many years to fall for that one. And I've been a customer who's been wrong, or said or done the wrong thing way too many times to even pretend to believe that I'm always right.

I have little patience for and even less desire to do business with companies who don't understand that.

No, the customer isn't always right...but the customer is always the customer and the reason we are and can remain in business!

This is a critical distinction. It means that while we must always treat customers with courtesy and respect, we can disagree with them when they're wrong. It means that we have a right to bring our expertise and imagination to the table. It means that we can demand that the customer gives us and our people the same respect and courtesy we give them and theirs.

Of course this doesn't mean that we need to go out of our way to highlight their ignorance (or demonstrate your superiority) or embarrass them; that's no way to build a solid customer relationship. It does mean, however, that we are obligated to use our “superior” knowledge and expertise to serve their best interest. It means that sometimes we must risk alienating (or even losing) the customer by correcting their serious misconceptions. Sometimes, their understanding is more important than our income.

This approach to the customer relationship has implications in other areas of our business, too. It should color how we build our products, how we deliver our services and how we work with our customers to meet their needs and solve their problems.

Healthy relationships are two way affairs. Both parties need to recognize and accept the other's strengths and weaknesses. Both parties need to acknowledge that the other has a right to their point of view.

And that's pretty much it.

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If you need help convincing your customer (or your boss) that it's OK to disagree with a customer, contact me. I'd be happy to help. Leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Religion In The Workplace?

To build an "ethical organization", we must first establish and clearly articulate a firm fundamental definition of what we see as "right" and what we see as "wrong". This is the "morals" part of the equation. 

Once this basic definition of right and wrong is articulated, we must look at and define what specific behaviors are "good" and what behaviors are "bad" in the day-to-day workplace. This means that we must not only provide a formal set of behavior guidelines, but it also means that as owners, executives and managers, we must set the example ("model the behavior") by living up to those same standards of behavior ourselves.  This is the "ethics" part of the equation.   

Whether you're starting from scratch building a new organization or re-building a shattered one (a la Enron, Worldcom, Countrywide, etc.), these two steps must be done. 

Here, I must remind those who want to keep religion out of the workplace that virtually every one of the various major religions in the world have already both articulated a set of basic moral principles and developed (more or less) effective codes of ethics. 


This is not to say that I believe that conversion to any religion should become a condition of employment. I don' think forced/coerced conversions are ever a good idea. 


I do believe, however, that there are certain fundamental principles of "right and wrong" that have been common  to virtually every successful human civilization and organization throughout history. I also believe that the major religions have spent a lot of time and energy working to articulate those principles and ideals and that they have developed some useful guidelines for living those principles. 

And in keeping with my fundamental aversion to "reinventing the wheel", I think that if you're trying to build a moral, ethical company and corporate culture, they are a convenient place to find well thought out, structured, "ready-made" guides to leading an "ethical life". 

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If you need help building your ethical organization, let me help. Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Life On The Road!

We were sitting at the bar, lamenting how horribly difficult it was being on the road...sitting in the hotel bar drinking while our families lived their lives an ocean away.

It was a tough life, to be sure. Nothing to do but drink, shoot the breeze with colleagues, and joke with the hotel staff who, after nearly 7 months living there, had become a virtual surrogate family.

Tough indeed.

Just then the phone rang. In the bar.

It was my wife (the front desk staff knew when to transfer it to the bar). nearly in tears because the well pump had failed and there was no water in the house and she had no idea what to do and she hated me always being gone and I needed to do something right now.

4,500 miles away, what could I do? If I jumped on a plane that evening, it would be very late the next day before I got home – assuming I could even get a flight on this short notice.

And then what would I do? I'm not the most handy guy when it comes to fixing electric motors. In fact, I hate it and I suck at it.

As you can imagine, this wasn't quite what my wife was hoping to hear. It did, however, give her something other than the water problems on which to focus her frustration and anger.

I quietly ordered another beer as I listened. VERY quietly.

She muttered something like "that's right, I'd forgotten how utterly useless and aggravating you are in these situations."

She then reminded herself that she'd have ended finding someone else to fix it even if I was at home and what the hell was she thinking calling me with a problem like this? She might as well just call the neighbor and see if HER husband would come over and fix the damned thing.

I listened quietly. Not too quietly, but just quietly enough so she wasn't immediately aware that I was drinking another beer.

My colleague was laughing it up with the bartender and the waitress...He'd been through this before, too.

"Well, sorry I bothered you" she said. "I need to get off the phone so I can call Karen and see if she'll send Jim over to look at the damned thing."

I sighed heavily, the guilt obvious in the sound.

"It's OK." she said, "I know this isn't easy for you either, being too far away to do anything and having to listen to me whine."

"No, honey, it's the least I could do. I'm sorry I'm not there for you. If you want, I can catch a plane tomorrow."

I wasn't due home for another 5 (billable) weeks...a fact of which we were both acutely aware.

"No. I'm fine. I'll take care of it......but I need to get off the phone now, it's getting late.

"Ok, dear, I'll let you go." disappointment obvious in my voice. "Do you want me to call later to see how things went?"

"No need. What can you do from there anyway? Gotta go. Bye. I love you."

"I love you, too. Bye."

She hung up.

I ordered another beer.

Yup, life on the road sure is tough. :-)

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If you need a professional consultant to help straighten out your remote operations, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com. I'd be happy to get on the road for you!

© 2008 Tom Fawls. All Rights Reserved