John Linton ......except when they're completely wrong - which is an awful lot of the time.
I have always been dismissive, a harsher person might go as far as saying contemptuous, about American marketing folk wisdom (the particular stupidity of the 'headline' is credited to Marshall Field's department store, Chicago in the late 19th/early 20th century) . Two other pieces of arrant nonsenses from the same sort of sources along with the obviously incorrect homily quoted in the title are:
1) An unhappy customer will share his bad experience with 20 other people while a happy customer will share it with only one.
Most people have heard that piece of nonsense more than once if they've been involved in commercial life. Few people, other than people like me, challenge the sheer stupidity of such a statement. Next time you hear it - please ask the idiot making it to point you to the research that came up with that conclusion - try to visualize how you would overcome the sheer logistical impossibility of attempting to measure that "statistic".
2) It's easier to sell to someone who is already a customer than it is to sell to a new customer.
Total c***. Again, ask the next fool who gives you that advice to cite the research that established it as being correct - there isn't any - and don't try the "it makes sense" line - it actually doesn't at all - try comparing the size of ANY customer base to the size of the market not included in that customer base (excluding monopolies) to point yourself in the right direction.
3) Perhaps you understand the point that I'm making - if you don't, then I can't see that a third example will be of any help.
Getting back to the title of this rant - I receive at least one email a week from someone or other telling me that the customer is always right - invariably from a customer, or a 'concerned individual' who is, without a shadow of a doubt, completely and comprehensively wrong about the issue subsequently raised in their communication.
Personally (as I have an IQ larger than my shoe size and many years experience in dealing with the human race) I don't equate the act of buying a product or service by someone as the equivalent of the Pope canonizing them as a saint - by this I mean a human being is the sum of their genetic inheritance, their home life and other experiences and their education and buyng or not buying a product or service from someone doesn't instantly change their nature and convert an a**hole into an infallibly correct saint - it leaves them as an a**hole who has bought a product and just as likely to be incorrect in any view they hold as they were before the paid for what they bought - nothing changed in that instant in time.
I think that anyone who believes such a scenario is possible should stop reading this opinion now - it can only offend your sensibilities further.
The same is not true of, say, an Exetel employee. Firstly we go out of our way in our job specifications and interview processes to ensure we hire on the saint side and completely avoid hiring a**holes. Secondly we train and supervise our people quite well and ensure that any tendencies, irrespective of the provocation, towards a**holeness are sharply curbed and if we have made a mistake in our hiring/selection process then we would deal with it quickly and completely.
By putting forward these views I'm not, for one moment, suggesting that any commercial company, certainly not Exetel, delivers flawless services at all times - far from it - I am more aware of this company's many shortcomings better, and in more exact detail, than anyone else.
The reality of any commercial transaction is that both the buyer and the seller believed, at least at the point of sale, that both are getting what they required in their separate ways/beliefs. Fortunately, at least if the transaction is between an ethical seller and a reasonable buyer that will prove to be the case for as long as the buyer uses the service. The only exceptions will be if the seller is unethical or if the buyer is unreasonable or some circumstances arise for a particular service that defy timely resolution by the ethical supplier.
I obviously believe that Exetel is completely ethical, in fact Exetel is 'bend over backwards' ethical, in all of its dealings with both customers and suppliers as well as with its own personnel.
However, I don't believe that the people we deal with (either customers or suppliers for that matter) fall 100% in to that category - in fact, my firm view based on situations encountered and dealt with over the past 51 months, is that there are totally unethical suppliers and customers and, if anything, that admittedly tiny percentage is not decreasing.
My only view of the people who write to me telling me how unhappy they are with the treatment they have received from an Exetel employee is always the same:
a) Apologize for their experience
b) Offer them the opportunity of immediately canceling their service without penalty
I then discuss the issue with the employee who is being complained about (if it is a complaint about an employee rather than some aspect of the service) and, almost without exception, I find nothing wrong with the way the issue was dealt with or the diligence applied to dealing with it. If there is something that has been done badly or wrongly then the employee is admonished.
You would think that would be enough to deal with any situation. How can it not be?
If a service is inadequate in the customer's eyes then moving to a service provided by another, better, supplier is the only sensible thing to do.
If an Exetel employee has inconvenienced the customer, an unreserved apology should be all that any reasonable person requires (together with a penalty free cancellation of the service if that's what they want).
But that is not the case for a tiny percentage of people. They want/demand to be allowed to go on and on and on and...... with emails, phone calls, comprehensive threats of legal action and "TV exposure" and all because "I am your customer and you must do whatever I tell you must be done".
Life is far too short to assign time to such lunatics. Apart from being stupidly wrong, the three quoted homilies together with today's cradle to the grave socialism have ensured that a great many people live their lives in Australia without bothering to take any sort of responsibility for themselves or their actions at any time.
I think the mistake I make is actually reading their emails - and then compounding that first mistake by replying to them.