Is the customer always right?

For a start, if the answer is YES, then it is an insult to the trained personnel in the business. While the customer cannot always be right, the customer certainly has rights! This would be the right to be heard; the right to an excellent product or service; as well as the right to be wrong!

To illustrate

Here is a personal experience to illustrate this philosophy that I embrace in my Liberating Service Excellence course.

Some years ago I was the proud owner of a Peugeot. A strange vibrating sound started when I took a sharp turn. It appeared to come from my wheels. With my keen knowledge of cars, I decided it must be the kingpins. I took it to the workshop in Edenvale for them to test-drive and diagnose. They tested the car and told me there was nothing wrong; no such sound was detected.

I threw my toys out the cot, told them how many years I had been driving, and how well I believed I knew cars. I insisted that the workshop manager accompany me while I drove fast around the circle in front of the dealership. In my triumph, the vibrating sound was then clearly heard. The manager asked me to step out of the vehicle, which I did. He then reached into the car and removed a golf ball that was nestling in the channel-iron separating the two front seats. He handed me the golf ball and said: “I think your vehicle’s kingpins are in order, Ma’am.” Clearly, this errant sporty golf ball would lodge itself, and depending on the car’s turning angle, would then roll and make itself heard! Was the customer right?

Who’s responsible? And who’s accountable?

The answer: Every person from the security guy at the gate, to the accounting staff is responsible. Who’s accountable? Okay, we know – it's management! So often external consultants are called in to sort the problem and motivate the people. But Service Excellence cannot be injected into a business with a once-off training session, no matter how smart and accomplished the presenter may be. It needs to be internally driven – measured, rewarded and corrected. Just as vehicles need the right tools to keep a vehicle in shape, so too do managers need the right tools to ensure that the entire value-chain aligns to the desired customer experience. 

The tools we have developed are first shared with management, before we engage staff members (not only front-line) in an experience that we call Third Ring Thinking.

Call me, and let’s liberate Service Excellence for your business!