The customer always matters

It was Henry Gordon Selfridge, founder of London's Selfridges store, who said "the customer is always right".

It is not the most entertaining quote on the relevant page of the Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations. That belongs to French advertising man Jacques Séguéla, who wrote a book called Don't Tell My Mother I Work in Advertising — She Thinks I'm a Piano-player in a Brothel.

But it is Selfridge's quote that has become a business truism.

Is it correct? Is the customer always right? The question has provoked a debate in the pages of Financial Times, prompted by its recent report that would-be drivers of London's black cabs may have to attend mandatory classes in customer service, as well as passing "The Knowledge", the famous test of the city's lay-out. The classes will focus on welcoming passengers, dealing with disabled customers and, in a business famous for its opinionated talkers, "knowing when to shut up". The news prompted a sharp letter from Brett Self of Alabama. "For generations people were taught that the customer is always right. This axiom is always wrong. However, [suggestions that] the customer is "king", "number one", "the boss" and my new favourite  "the reason we're here" continue to spread... in our modern, worldwide service industry," he wrote.

Not always right

There are business leaders who agree.

In his memoirs, Gordon Bethune, one-time chief executive of Continental Airlines, had a section headed "The customer is not always right". Michael O'Leary, boss of Ryanair, the Irish low-cost airline, recently went further, telling the Financial Times: "The customer's usually wrong." You would think their customers would have abandoned them for more sympathetic airlines, but they did not. Bethune and O'Leary are two of the most successful chief executives of their generation. Bethune rescued Continental from what had seemed like a terminal dive. O'Leary leads one of the most successful airlines in history.

Does that mean that not only can you get away with treating your customers badly but that you can thrive on it? No.

Bethune certainly worried about customer service, particularly Continental's appalling punctuality record. He told staff that every month Continental was in the US top five for on-time arrivals, each employee would receive a $65 (Dh238.69) cash bonus. It was not that Bethune did not understand the importance of happy customers. It was that he knew only committed staff would provide the service that would keep them happy. If, in spite of all its efforts, the airline failed to perform and a customer became aggressive with an employee, Bethune would always back the employee. Why? Because he thought employees would do more for customers if they thought their managers were on their side.

O'Leary is more complicated. He seems to go out of his way to antagonise customers, once even threatening to charge them to use the toilet. O'Leary is offering one thing: cheap flights. By telling customers how little he cares about them, O'Leary encourages them to concentrate on price alone and lowers their expectation of receiving anything else.

You need to know who your customers are and what you are offering them. If it is rock-bottom prices, you need to be cheaper than anyone else.

Customers may not always be right, but they certainly matter. Unless you can give them what your competitors cannot, you have no business.

— Financial Times