"The Customer is always Right?" Not where I'm standing!

[TERRA Rising]

As a member of the sales force (I work in a comic book store), I'm always being questioned by idiots (the general public) about they way things were (Back in my day, comics were 10 cents and my mother threw them out with the bathwater!) and the way things are now (Why would anyone pay $2.99 for a bunch of pictures of half-naked, top-heavy women and over-developed men beating the shit out of each other?).

Since I work cheap, I'm in NO danger of being fired and I have the freedom to "politely" tell these people off. But I sometimes wonder about those who are less fortunate than I.

Therefore, my question to the board is this: Who coined that idiotic phrase "The customer is always right?"

[Early Out]

According to these folks (http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/106700.html), it was one H. Gordon Selfridge.

[MrPeabody]

I guess your boss gets what he pays for.

[TERRA Rising]

Yes, he does.

A hard worker who likes what he does.

[sailor]

>> A hard worker who likes what he does

I would also enjoy telling customers to shove it. :)

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Two choices for you:

1) smart off to the customers enough and you WILL get fired no matter how little you make or how easy it is to be replaced

2) suck it up and learn to live with it.


That aside, I have learned (after 20+ years in retail of one sort or another) that the phrase really means, "The customer should always be made to believe he is right". Think of it that way and you'll last a lot longer.

[samclem]

According to these folks, it was one H. Gordon Selfridge

I know of no original cites, other than the notoriously incorrect Word and Phrase Origins by Hendrickson. He never gives sources. That's probably where most sites on the net get their info.

Barry Popik has found it used in a NYTimes advertisement from 1915, used by a local drugstore.

Selfridge(of London department store fame) may have invented it, but there is no proof as of this time.

[RM Mentock]

Originally posted by TERRA Rising
A hard worker who likes what he does.
Except for...you know. :)

[kanicbird]

My brief experence with retail has lead me to believe that a customer can get anything he wants for free if he complains 'well' enough.

Note 'well' does not mean loud or long but it could include either or both.

[Speaker for the Dead]

I'm more likely to give people stuff cheaper (I only have a few things I can do that with, and even then, it's not free) if they're nice, not whiny. I'll only give whiny people stuff when my manager tells me to to shut them up.

[DAVEW0071]

My customers are not always right. Sorry. They're just not.

This has nothing to do with the level of service I provide, or what they're spending, but rather with the fact that often they ask me to make pesticide applications that are dangerous, unnecessary, or flat-out illegal.

"Can you spray into the drain for me?"

"No, sir, I can't. It's against the law."

"I see the ants along the floor near the garbage. Make sure you spray well right there."

"Well, ma'am, they're at the garbage because it's a food source. But I'll be better able to handle your problem if I treat around the doorframe and the pipe access holes in the wall under the sink. And you'll be exposed to less pesticide that way."

The customer is not always right. But if they're satisfied, they sure as heck won't complain.

[Spiny Norman]

"The customer must always be treated professionally", which is not nearly as snappy, but way more to the point.

Sometimes the customer is simply wrong, and he should have no expectation of that being ignored just because he's involved in a professional transaction.

I've never worked retail (although it's beginning to sound good), but I've consulted on IT projects with people who expected me to circumvent the laws of physics and hand over thousands of dollars worth of free stuff because their hallowed status as customer meant that no one would ever dare contradict them. Obviously, that's not reasonable. And luckily, I worked for a company that had no problem with acknowledging that some customers are not worth the trouble.

[Scott Dickerson]

I have worked retail now and then. Customers are people. And if you have chosen to work in a specific area (as did you, TERRA), your customers will, for the most part, share many of your enthusiasms and interests.

No, they are not, literally, "always right," and if they are asking me to do something unreasonable and inappropriate, I find nice, non-defiant-sounding ways to decline their requests: with explanation if it can be put concisely and won't sound like an invitation to argument. Sometimes I have to give them the "look of sorrow and pity" and say, politely, "I really believe I said No."

Most customers are NOT jerks, idiots, or scam artists. If they think you're listening to them and not shining them on, they will quickly calm down.

But pardon me, Terra, if you feel like telling customers off because they have opinions of today's comic books that you don't happen to share...perhaps there's a slight mismatch between you and your job.

[handsomeharry]

it seems to me, terra, that you are in one of the high risk occupations for nerd hanger-onners(sic). didn't you expect hazards like this when you applied for the job?

[Master Wang-Ka]

Well, not only nerd hangers on, but parents and older comic book fiends, too.

When I was a kid, I could buy every comic on the rack at the drugstore for about five or six bucks.

Now I am 38, and I could buy every comic at the comic book store (all the ones that came out this week, that is) for about two to five hundred bucks, depending on what came out this week. Please note that my local comic shop only carries the stuff the owner thinks will sell locally, by the way.

I don't read comics any more. But if I did, I would make a point of remembering that the guy behind the counter isn't the one who wrote, drew, printed and priced the fraggin' comics. He simply orders them from a distributor, and sells them for the suggested cover price.

Add that to the fact that most comic shops now sell a variety of "collectibles" ranging from HeroClix figurines (which can fetch up to $50 on Ebay for the rarer ones) to Cold Cast Porcelain Topless Lady Death 62EEE Cup Statues for $blue zillion...

...and when Little Johnny comes bouncing out of the store with this lovely treasure under his arm, and Mom sees it and promptly pops a circuit breaker... oh, man, is that comic shop clerk going to get a faceful, or what?

Of course, many comic shops don't do refunds. They don't dare, not with the collectible nature of their product. This means that Little Johnny isn't going to get his Gramma's Christmas money back from the store to spend on something Mom approves of. At least, that's the way my local shop operates. It's not the clerk's idea, either -- it's the owner.

...but the clerk's the one who gets the faceful from Mom, in her hopes that if she's loud and psycho enough, he will give her the fraggin' money back, just to go away...

"High Risk Occupation" indeed. You meet some fun folks, sure, but you also meet some of the people God must have made when he was just kidding or something...

[hazel-rah]

Um, it's a well-known fact that in exchange for the shit pay and total lack of career opportunities, employees of indie record and comic books shops are allowed to be as rude and surly to the customers as they feel like being. Experienced record and comic book enthusiasts actually expect this and are disappointed if you are helpful and friendly.

-fh

[Master Wang-Ka]

Really? I've never had a harsh word spoken to me by a comic shop clerk.

Then again, I've never gotten in one's face about why Men In Tights Monthly ain't thirty-five cents no more...

[Apollyon]

Originally posted by Wang-Ka
You meet some fun folks, sure, but you also meet some of the people God must have made when he was just kidding or something...
Having worked for a number of years in both Comic and RPG retail and wholesale I'd like to second that observation. Most of our customers were the nicest people you could meet, but the percentage of socially challenged ones, and those who could have perhaps more closely investigated personal hygiene options (to wit soap) was alarmingly high.

One of my ex-business partners stated that most of our customer base could be divided into "dweebs, nerds, white slugs and armchair Princes of Darkness". :)

Since this is GQ, and in an attempt to tie back to the OP -- in New Zealand we have very tough consumer protection laws, so while the customer is not always right, they are often well protected.
In the case of the comic shops there a special little "gotcha" -- being a specialty store the staff can be considered domain experts, which means that advice given to a customer can have legal consequences. We were advised to never recommend or comment on the collectability of particular books since we could be held to it -- "they advised me that Silly Putty-Man #27 would increase in value 500%, what do you mean it's only worth 25c??!!"

[TERRA Rising]

Originally posted by Apollyon
[
Since this is GQ, and in an attempt to tie back to the OP -- in New Zealand we have very tough consumer protection laws, so while the customer is not always right, they are often well protected.
In the case of the comic shops there a special little "gotcha" -- being a specialty store the staff can be considered domain experts, which means that advice given to a customer can have legal consequences. We were advised to never recommend or comment on the collectability of particular books since we could be held to it -- "they advised me that Silly Putty-Man #27 would increase in value 500%, what do you mean it's only worth 25c??!!" [/B]

Damn, that friggin' sucks!

Good thing I never say that!

[scm1001]

Originally posted by TERRA Rising
As a member of the sales force (I work in a comic book store), I'm always being questioned by idiots

your shop wouldn't be the "The Android's Dungeon" by any chance?

[Guinastasia]

Of course, many comic shops don't do refunds. They don't dare, not with the collectible nature of their product.


Wang Ka, what does being collectible have to do with refunds? :confused:

[drachillix]

Originally posted by Spiny Norman
[B]"The customer must always be treated professionally", which is not nearly as snappy, but way more to the point.

The way it was put to me was "The customer has the right to have any reasonable request granted." Losing money on a transaction is not reasonable unless something really unhappy occurs. Depending on the scale of the business and or the product/service involved you might be able to write off a chunk of a transaction to appease a customer. The kinds of "appeasement" I see in my job frightens me sometimes, but considering what we pay for our product I know we can afford it most of the time.

[astorian]

Why do I get the feeling the OP's role model is Jack Black, in "High Fidelity"?

Oh I know, it's entirely possible the OP is a swell guy who just has hundreds of idiotic customers, but somehow I doubt it. I say that because I run into his kind here in Austin, everywhere I go. "Service" industries in Austin are FILLED with people who THINK they should be rock stars or acclaimed filmmakers, and are furious that, instead, they're working at minimum wage jobs where they have to serve people who aren't NEARLY as cool as they are.

When I'm a customer at ANY shop or restaurant, I won't say I'm always "right," but I'd say I'm polite and fairly reasonable. And when I ask an employee for basic assistance ("where do I find this-or that?"), I think a simple answer without any smirks or sarcasm would be nice.

Here in Austin, of course, that's often too much to ask for. Ask a clerk at Tower records where to find a CD by your favorite artist, and you're liable to hear a lecture about why your favorite artist sucks. (Pssst- hey kid, you're not a music critic, you're a sales clerk! Get over yourself! NOBODY is saying you have to listen to the CD I want! All you have to do is point me to the aisle where I can find it!)

For that matter, I've gone to local delis where the sandwich makers smirk if they don't think the toppings you order on your sandwich are cool enough. (Pssst- jerk! YOU don't have to eat my sandwich. All you have to do is make it the way I ask for it! Instead, you blow me attitude, and then wonder why your tip jar is empty.)

I don't KNOW that the OP is the same kind of person, but I'd be willing to bet a quarter he is. I STRONGLY doubt whether customers walk in off the street and pick silly fights with him. More likely, they come in and ask for comics he thinks he's too cool to sell, and gives them some serious attitude.

[mazzer]

Originally posted by astorian
Here in Austin, of course, that's often too much to ask for. Ask a clerk at Tower records where to find a CD by your favorite artist, and you're liable to hear a lecture about why your favorite artist sucks. (Pssst- hey kid, you're not a music critic, you're a sales clerk! Get over yourself! NOBODY is saying you have to listen to the CD I want! All you have to do is point me to the aisle where I can find it!)
Sounds like someone got kicked out of the hipster pool, and now he wants to pee in it. And besides, who shops at Tower, anyway? Sound Exchange is waaay cooler. ;)

[astorian]

Originally posted by chriszarate
Sounds like someone got kicked out of the hipster pool, and now he wants to pee in it. And besides, who shops at Tower, anyway? Sound Exchange is waaay cooler. ;)


It's hard to get kicked out of someplace you've never been! I wasn't cool when I was in college, and strongly doubt that I've gotten cooler in the meantime.

But that really isn't the point, is it? If you're a sales clerk at Tower, you're no better or worse than a sales clerk at HEB or Randall's (grocery chains, for those outside Texas). If I ask a clerk at HEB where they keep... oh, for the heck of it, the Pop Tarts, I'll never hear a lecture about why Pop Tarts are no good. Somehow, the kids working at HEB understand that it's their job to sell the customer what he wants, and it's no skin off their nose if I choose to eat something they don't like.

The way I figure it, if I buy a Kenny G or Partridge Family CD at Tower (I never have, I'm just pickingtwo random, un-hip artists), the clerk is free to laugh hysterically as soon as I'm out the door. Until then, a little basic courtesy is in order.

*

As one local DJ likes to remind snooty slacker waiters and sales clerks:

YOU didn't cook the food, you just SERVE the food.
YOU didn't make the records. You just SELL the records.
YOU didn't write the books, you just SELL the books.

And to the OP... YOU didn't draw the comics, you just SELL comics.

[mazzer]

Originally posted by astorian
YOU didn't cook the food, you just SERVE the food.
YOU didn't make the records. You just SELL the records.
YOU didn't write the books, you just SELL the books.

And to the OP... YOU didn't draw the comics, you just SELL comics.
I know, I know, everyone's a critic. But some people like it that way, believe it or not, which is why places like Tower and Sound Exchange still exist in the face of Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Austin is worse than most, but you're still plenty able to vote with your dollars. Plus, there's nothing in the rules that says you can't play their game, too. Tell them that their indie high ground is pretty shaky, considering they're just regurgitating what they read in the Austin Chronicle. If you don't care what they think, then you don't care what they think.

In another window, I've actually been reading a piece on Salon (http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2003/01/13/bart/index.html) that is semi-relevant. And while I'm not claiming the OP is on par with professional movie critics, it raises an interesting point. Without critics, there is no one to offer a viewpoint that competes with the manufacturer's advertising. And even if you don't agree with a "critic," you can usually use what he/she says to further your understanding. If the clerk thinks that album sucks, ask him what else sucks in a similar way. Now you got tips on what else to buy. The clerk doesn't actually hate you, he just wants to engage with somebody at his boring-ass job. It may be misguided, but it can only bother you if you let it.

[Scott Dickerson]

Astorian--thank you!

[X~Slayer(ALE)]

The phrase "The Customer is always right" is a business slogan not a life philosophy. It worked for H. Gordon Selfridge and a whole lot of people but it isnt the only slogan in town. If your product is good, people come to buy that. You only decrease the 'return customers' by being rude and most successful business consider the 'return customer' the most valued customer. If youre fine with the the one shop volume of customers, hey, cuss the lil nerds out. If youre thinking of expanding into a chain of stores statewide, then your attitude has got to go.