The customer is not always right
The “customer is always right,” mantra was introduced in 1909 by American Harry Gordon Selfridge after opening his department store in London. Selfridge was far ahead of his time. He understood that consumers didn’t just want goods - they wanted feelings. He made shopping an emotional event and he pioneered a philosophy that would shape the customer experience for more than a century.
Meant to empower consumers and build trust, it worked for a long time. It restyled the retail trade and influenced those in the service business, so much so, that it became a golden standard in the hospitality industry - from bellhops to five-star managers. Ritz-Carlton Hotels took Selfridge’s ideas to the next level by introducing what it termed the Gold Standards. It described its employees as “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen,” where no request is considered too large or too small whilst setting aside a budget of US$ 2,000 per staff member for resolving guest issues.
They created guest experiences people raved about and they made employees feel empowered—at least in theory. But in practice, the model was increasingly manipulated. For example: A Ritz-Carlton in Dubai once flew in a special tea brand from Sri Lanka on the same day to satisfy a returning guest. He was thrilled. But on his next visit? He asked for his favorite curtains to be reinstalled. Then his favorite massage therapist to be flown in. The list grew. Pandering to every whim and fancy can quickly spiral out of control with hardly any escape valve.
It took a while for hotels to realise that the oft repeated belief, that shaped loyalty and reputation, had a dark side to it: staff burnout, financial exploitation incurring direct and indirect monetary costs, unrealistic guest expectations, and, in some cases, operational failure.
Guests have also come to realize how important platforms like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google Reviews are… and how it can be an Achilles heel for a lot of properties. Now, there are a number of guests who exploit this to make hotel managers and hotel staff to cave in to their unreasonable demands. They threaten hotel staff that they will publish a negative review if they don’t get what they want – whether it’s a room upgrade or a free night’s stay. Their power stems from making a local complaint global, turning small issue into PR crises by influencing potential customers before booking.
By the way, not a lot of hotel managers know that they can actually preempt a bad review even before it is submitted or published by alerting TripAdvisor – which has a protocol for hotel operators to get in touch with its Management Center and alert them that a malicious review for the hotel might be submitted to the site. This though has to be done within the hour after a threat was made.
Companies began to openly admit that customers can be ‘wrong’ – something that frontline service employees already knew as reality. Yes, the ‘the customer is always right’ sentiment is a good general working standard, but following it blindly can lead to psychologically damaging experiences to employees and ruin the experience of other guests.
The service sector faces an environment that includes customers who exhibit dysfunctional behaviour – where an average day can turn out to be the worst day. Emotionally, a customer could be anywhere from happy to slightly annoyed to abusive. Different levels of customer temperament require different approaches. And while most interactions won’t require a drastic response from staff, they should be taught on how to handle customer emotions that sit anywhere on the temperament barometer during the interaction.
Progressive hoteliers are finally standing up and drawing lines. They’re replacing the old slogan with a new philosophy: “All guests are respected, but boundaries exist.
Shafeek Wahab - Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Mystery Guest Auditor, Ex-Hotelier
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