I am in the people business, the radio business. We work in an industry that depends on listeners to tune in to keep us employed. Without them we would be out of a job. On the plus side, I might have a higher self-esteem. Now, before you get upset, that last part was a joke…..mostly. If you leave your house on a regular basis, you will run across people who dislike you for no reason. It’s inevitable. As you can imagine, that is magnified when you are in the radio business, or any other media medium. We signed up for this job, so therefore we take the negative attention that comes along with it. I have been called a cow, an idiot and many other words I won’t repeat from people I have never met. If I respond, they get angry, they think it’s unprofessional; they threaten to take it to my boss. It's a one way street, they can pile it on, but don't I dare give it back. I had a conversation with a listener about this very topic, and he summed it up simply- the customer is always right. I hate that phrase. Many years in the restaurant business have made me bitter towards that phrase. The basis of the phrase itself is simple, don't argue with the customer; just fix the problem. That's fair enough when you are dealing with surf and turf. It is an entirely different story when the customer writes me to tell me how stupid and fat I am. In that case I am not supposed to argue, nor can I fix it. First off, you can't fix stupid; Ron White told me that. Hence, your email has fallen upon deaf ears….mostly because I probably won’t even understand it; I’m stupid, remember? Plus, I am eating a box of Cheez-its, so I really only took half of what you said in.
“The customer is always right.” That phrase has turned into an excuse for anyone to be rude or disrespectful to another person simply because they are a “customer.” A ‘customer” can write anything they want to me or my co-workers, but should we respond, someone else will be quick to remind us that it is unprofessional; that “the customer is always right.” I don’t think people actually understand what this means- it doesn’t give you the right to insult others or harass them. It doesn’t mean you can send a tirade of cuss words our way and threaten us. It doesn’t mean that just because you don’t agree with us, we should be fired. It means, if you don’t like something or feel you have been wronged, you have the right to discuss it like an adult with us, that’s the key.
So, is the customer always right? Is there ever a time when they are wrong? I learned this much needed lesson from an episode of Saved By The Bell. Kelly was a waitress at the Max. A biker couple came in to the restaurant and ordered a sandwich with no mayo. No Mayo! Well, unfortunately for Miss Kapowski, that darn sandwich came to their table with mayo. Gasp! The horror! The couple was furious and took it out on poor Kelly. Luckily Jeff came to Kelly’s rescue. He slapped the sandwich (with mayo) into the dude’s hand and told them that their order was to go. Oooooh….. it was intense. That’s when Kelly knew she liked Jeff. Now, before you go on thinking Jeff is a standup guy, you should know he got caught cheating on Kelly at the Attic when the gang gets fake ID’s. Classic. But, alas, that’s for another time. My point is, yes, the order was wrong, but the couple handled it very poorly. You can’t yell at the waitress over mayo gosh darnit! There is a way to handle these things, and the biker couple reacted poorly- in this case, the customer was not right. There is a way to talk to people regardless of where they work. Just because you are serving someone their coffee doesn't mean they are beneath you. Just because you hear someone on the radio or see them on TV or read their article in the newspaper doesn't mean that you, as their "customer" should belittle them or insult them. They are people just like you!
Here are some other examples where the customer was not always right……
~Ashley
© 2012
