Don't Believe The Hype: 5 Reasons Why 'The Customer Is Always Right' Is Actually Wrong


Your customers are loyal to your brand. They will never buy anything from anyone else. They won’t trust your competitors. And they don’t like the choices that make up other businesses.
That’s good news for your small business. Because the more independent you are, and the less competition there is, the better. But there’s one problem with this philosophy. It can become an excuse for not making decisions that are best for your company.
“The customer is always right” may seem great advice when it comes to marketing or sales. In fact, in many cases, it can also prove true for product development. (You don’t have to build everything from scratch.) When you set out to create a new product, it’ll end up being pretty darn complicated, and likely expensive to develop. That should probably give every business reason to take any and all risks. If it doesn’t work out, well, someone else did. If your product does work, and you save money by doing so, then you know what? I guess you just got lucky. There are no guarantees, after all.
But that doesn’t mean that if something goes wrong, it should go away—at least until your next product comes along. After a certain point of time, your customer base may decide that your product is unappealing or even dangerous. Then, whatever damage it caused may not be permanent or recoverable. Instead of taking the blame, keep in mind, there’s always someone who’s waiting to solve this problem. They could be using some kind of tool or algorithm that helps them detect problems as soon as possible. Or they could just be a bit unlucky. Whatever the cause of the crisis, the person who took action was able to prevent others from suffering as much. Of course, it takes some effort on their part, but they saved themselves from being held accountable for the outcome of their actions.
This principle applies to almost any area of life. For example, it can be used in politics: We tend to think that our politicians shouldn’t make mistakes. However, we know from historical examples that those in power make mistakes (and do worse!) than their rivals. This mistake often serves to motivate us to do better next time, rather than focusing on how to avoid making the same mistakes in future elections. Similarly, if you’re building a house, hiring qualified contractors is essential, as well as having regular checkups on your project. You should try to follow these simple rules whenever working on your own, or hiring outside help for your needs.
Here are five reasons why the “the customer is always right” dogma isn’t actually always true.


1. Humans Make Mistakes

Humans tend to make mistakes. More and more often, it appears that people who live far away from each other still prefer to communicate with friends and family via online chat. While video calls often result in higher quality communication, the distance between two parties makes face-to-face interaction difficult to organize. People will naturally try different ways to address things. Sometimes they succeed. Other times, they fail. What they come back to over and over again is their willingness to accept responsibility. If someone makes a big decision that affects only one party, they won’t even consider talking to another person about it. To deal with it adequately, it’s necessary to understand where a person’s emotions lie, and to learn how to deal with them.


2. Customers Are Often Unfair

When companies talk about the importance of keeping your promises, they only mean the ones related to your products or services. Many companies spend too much time thinking about how to make sure that they’ll get customers in the door, how to win their attention at the right moment, and so on. Rather, look at whether or not you’re delivering what you promised. Once again, remember that human beings are complex creatures, capable of making both good and bad decisions. By understanding that, it becomes clear that sometimes your promises are unfulfilled only because some customers weren’t careful enough in checking on their options. Maybe one of them didn’t use a specific feature. Perhaps they bought another product, and later found out that it had a major flaw. These kinds of situations should have been avoided at all costs! A little extra thought is always welcome.


3. Every Decision Should Have Its Own Risk Assessment

If your customers find out about a defect in your product, one thing that many will want to know is whether they’ll have to pay a large sum of money for repairs or replacement. Some customers will feel like they’ve been taken advantage of. Others might feel offended. Either way, that means that it’s possible that something doesn’t go unnoticed anymore. So your business has to know how to prevent a situation where a faulty component or service causes considerable loss. The sooner you identify any problems with your processes and systems, the better. It may not be easy to identify and correct any issues that can potentially harm your customers.


4. Everyone Thinks About Theirselves Too Much

It’s important to realize that everyone thinks about himself or herself too much. Whether it’s spending time on social media, playing catch up with news, or otherwise procrastinating while reading articles, people tend to lose track of time. That leaves them without adequate or sufficient focus. Asking questions helps prevent such behaviors from occurring.


5. Staying Healthy Depends On Who Saves Money First

There are several habits that can benefit you more than others, no matter whether you sell cars or groceries. Spending hours scrolling through Instagram can lead to losing interest in reading books, trying new products, or looking at your phone. All of this contributes to mental health deterioration. Not being mentally healthy can affect everyone around you, and ultimately make them happier. Keeping a close eye on finances also improves your ability to manage debts and handle emergencies.

Keeping your personal financial health in mind can help every company to achieve its goals. Companies, in turn, would be more motivated to invest resources into projects that can contribute to the success of the community; therefore increasing overall happiness. Thus, making your employees healthier and safer can be one of the biggest benefits for small business owners!

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