When is the customer right?
The answer to this question depends mostly on your perspective. If you are a traditional salesperson, it might be useful to think that your customer is always right and to do everything to make them happy. However, if you are working on improving the products of your customer; you should get yourself – and your client – used to the idea that the customer might not be right, most of the time.
Since the late 19th century, when industrial production accelerated, and masses gained the ability to purchase more than their basic necessities, the need of manufacturers to create demand for their high supply brought about the concept, that is still popular: “The customer is always right.”.
Although the source is not known precisely, the idea that the customer is always right, which was made famous by the great pioneer store owners Marshall Field in Chicago and Harry Gordon Selfridge in London, and it has reached the present day. Moreover, it is localized and settled in French as “The customer is never wrong.”, in German as “The customer is king.”, in Japanese as “The customer is god.” and in Turkish as “The customer is the source of blessings.”.
Over the past century, the advancement in science and technology alongside the changing social and economic structures have made this principle rightly questionable. It became apparent in the business world’s complex dynamics that the customer was not always right. Yes, the customer was important, perhaps the essential part of the business, but to think that the customer demands are not questionable has brought many disasters for brands and service providers as well as the customers.
What does the customer want?
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Henry Ford
The saying of the industrialist Henry Ford, who brought revolutionizing innovations to the production processes, describes the limitations of the customer vision successfully. As well as innovation and change can come from apparent needs, offering customers more than their expectations is also a successful and profitable option.
If we think the issue from the perspective of the development and improvement of service providers, it is very reasonable and logical to care for the customers’ demands; and so you should do. . However, taking into account the demands of your customers without heuristic analysis and also reliable data analyzed by scientific methods might cause similar disasters for you and your clients.
In short, the customer always wants the best they know, not the best. Therefore, producing the better can also mean radically changing the values that the customer is strictly dependent on. If Ford had chosen to create what customers wanted instead of taking the risk of change, the Mustang name would not be a myth but referred to as a wild horse species unique to North America.
The rules of the team game
In a project which the customer expects your support, they also might expect being always right. It might be thought that they mostly are right because of knowing their potential, product, and the team better than you. Nevertheless, the professional management of the project by experts and the production of the analytical solutions based on data is undoubtedly more important than who is the right one.
Perhaps the smartest move that could be done when kicking off a project would be to reduce the number of the “sides” to one.. To indigenize a common user-based mindset by integrating project owner, who is in charge of the project, with your team in all of the analysis, design and production stages will be the best and most efficient approach to the project.
Why is the customer not right?
If your customer does not think that you are on the same team, it means that you will spend most of your time to convince them of the work you have done, instead of doing your job. It is predictable how it might turn your project into long-term disaster.
Your customer is not the expert; on the contrary, they work with you because they need your expertise, experience, and perspective. Make sure a knowledgeable customer does not ask you for support, or more explicitly, they don’t pay for it.
Your customer does not give up easily what they are accustomed to; so they need to be convinced. It is not easy; at times, it is impossible. Basing innovative ideas on existing data, relevant research, and similar examples will significantly shorten your time to persuade your customer. Otherwise, you will inevitably suffer from financial loss as well as a loss of motivation in a short time. Therefore, you should express your data in a way that is as easy to understand as possible.
We all work to earn money, but the planned financial return of a project does not always mean that the project is profitable. Due to high expectations, the extended working hours, arbitrary decisions, and “one step forward, two steps back” processes, the unscheduled and unpredictable project-end becomes extremely destructive for all team members, and unfortunately, there is no compensation for this damage.
Let’s go back to our original question: When is the customer right? The answer to this question is related to the core values that should be a part of relationships both in our life and at work.
Firstly, the customer is right when they can integrate with the team as well as communicate with their team. Then they should be able to define the scope of the project as accurately as possible by analyzing the needs of their customers extensively. Moreover, they should participate in the process instead of continually interfering with it, and finally, they should aim to provide solutions by sharing the needs arise during the process with the team without delay.
It can be added more to the description paragraph above, and each improves the quality of your customer, and thus your project team. Of course, it is not difficult to conclude that a qualified team will produce good quality.
With scientific methods, professional principles, and reliable communication, it is possible to manage not only the idea that the customer is always right but also the processes that ensure the success of the project. There should also be experiences that will shape future business models.