Is the customer always right? No, but…
Over time, the ‘customer is always right’ policy experienced modifications; now different businesses are adapting to this change
A couple months ago, a middle-aged customer came to Shwapno to pick up the groceries he had left inside the outlet for at least four hours since purchase. When he asked for his grocery bag - inside which was a raw fish - the cashier refused to comply.
Since the fish might have rotten by then, the store changed out the stale fish with a fresh one without charging for it nor listening to the customer's demand for the original purchase.
Chaldal.com, an e-commerce website in Bangladesh that sells groceries and regular household products, had a similar experience. Seven days after getting some fish from them, one customer returned the fish saying it had got rotten. The returned fish was cooked.
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After close inspection, they sent the customer a fresh fish, as is their policy.
But these are not two isolated incidents. Shwapno did what they felt to be the right thing to do as a prompt solution without listening to the customer's demands, while Chaldal.com dealt with it as if the customer was never wrong.
"We don't believe that the customer is always right. Neither do we believe that we are always right. As rational beings, what we can do is listen to each other, put our ideas together and improve the market by better decision-making.
And if that requires us to deny our customers, we would do that, while still respecting their values," said Sabbir Ahmed Nasir, the Chief Director of Shwapno.
But are we, as customers, ready to accept that? Can we be rational and accept that customers are not 'always right'? To answer this question, we turned to a number of business owners, e-commerce sites and most importantly, the customers.
Evolution of 'customer-first' market policy
The phrase 'customer is always right' was popularised by American Harry Gordon Selfridge, who founded the London-based department store called Selfridges in the early 1900s. The saying stayed and many businesses still go by it.
As the world gradually moved towards neo-imperialism, the market transformed to a more consumerist character. That's when the saying 'customer is god' piqued in the market.
Eventually, a change emerged. With more information becoming available to the consumers, they are now more aware. Customers can hardly be convinced into buying products by misadvertisement and manipulation anymore, which ultimately resulted in changes in the market policy.
"It's not that the customer is always right. Customers too can make mistakes sometimes. They get confused, so they exaggerate or even lie. But you can still make the customer 'feel right' by agreeing with them on the importance of what they value," said Professor Rezwanul Haque, who teaches consumer behaviour at the Institute of Business Administration.
Thus, it is more about understanding customers' psychology. "Customer retention is a crucial factor now. The market is big and with the growing economic culture, there is extreme competition.
So you don't just want to sell your product now, you need to retain your customers as well. And that's why the customer isn't your god anymore, s/he is a rational human being that you need to take care of with better product and service," explained the professor.
How to deal with angry customers?
Dealing with angry customers requires applying different methods, which depends on what product is being sold, on which platform, the business model, etc.
Take Chaldal.com for example. They sell groceries starting from rice, fish, vegetables down to soaps, shampoo and beauty products/toiletries. Their product range covers perishable food items too. The delivery service, therefore, has to be timely, as the company's COO Zia Ashraf said.
"We make 12,000 deliveries per day on an average and if we calculate the complaint record against it, it is only 2%, give or take. Our products are closely related to health and well-being, so we generally don't want to push our customers [argue] and strongly follow the return policy.
At the beginning that might sound like we are making losses. But in reality, what we want to do is retain our customers. Without bargaining, they are buying goods from us and we want to value the trust they put on us," explained Zia.
Clearly, Chaldal finds the return policy to be a solution for developing a more engaging marketplace.
But that is not the case for the local kitchen market where most people buy their groceries. If a customer shows up with a fish two days after purchase saying it is rotten, the seller would never take it back, unless it is a packaged commodity like milk.
"The customer had the option to test its quality/freshness while buying. If the fish is rotten [after the purchase], it's the customer's mistake," Md Rashid Anwar, a local fish seller at the Khilgaon Railgate Bazar said.
'Customer is always right' does not only apply to grocery stores and kitchen markets, but also applies to hotels and restaurants.
Bikrampur Bhater Hotel, a small hotel at the Moghbazar area serves all types of bhorta, fish, daal and rice for lunch. When a customer complains about their food, what do they do? The owner Rashedur said, "Customers generally don't complain about the taste of food because that's a relative factor. We generally don't change the food even if they do and they have to pay for it even if they don't finish it. But if the food gets a bad odour or flies in it, we change it immediately."
However, about non-perishable products like books and wearables, customer service operators say that the customers are comparatively calmer on these platforms. Ishtiaque Mahmud Hossein, a customer service operator for Rokomari.com said, "The book-buyers are generally well-behaved and sophisticated. During the book fair season in February, we get 100 calls per hour on average and only 2-3% of callers behave rudely.
And they can be pacified comparatively easily."
What do the customers want
Roksana, a regular customer at the Gawsia Market in the capital's Newmarket area, prefers shopping from physical outlets. She attested, "I want to buy good clothes of the colours of my choice and on my budget, all of which I think e-commerce sites cannot provide," while Marzan Jui, a Dhaka-based journalist, prefers the unique designs and sobre colours Poter Bibi or Khut offers.
Granted that online shopping takes away the hassle of having to visit the shops, in doing so customers lose the freedom of assuring the quality of what they are taking home or are consuming, as it is also not uncommon to be given bad/duplicate products purchased online. Some customers are just picky and to them that serves right.
When the customer is 'not' always right
According to all the business owners, the customers may not tell us what they value. In fact, they can even make it hard to know. "We have to figure it out ourselves," according to all the business owners, that is how the customers have to be dealt with when they make wrong decisions.
For example, if a customer complains about the speed of the service, it is best not to argue. S/he can still be made to feel right. We try saying, "You are absolutely right; speed is very important. Let me be the one to help you quickly…" according to business owners.
If they complain about the staff being rude, the staff is not reproached right in front of them. The practice could be rather listening to them and saying, "You always deserve our courtesy and respect. But we are all human beings, let's move on and let me help you," according to business owners.
The customer may not always be right but still, it is important to respect their values. Professor Rezawanul Haque teaches his students, "Make a customer feel right - by agreeing with them on the importance of what they value."
