I became fairly sure the universe has a massive superiority complex once I learned about relativity. Not only is the speed of light 300,000 meters per second, it is 300,000 meters per second faster than you.
Got dive bombed by some Capitalists again today. Argued out of the room even. I wanted to tell them, "I'm not going to waste time since I can't get a word in edgewise," but I literally couldn't get a word in edgewise. I never realized what an anti-communal concept was "The Customer Is Always Right." Maybe I'll spend some time here saying what I wish I could have said to them, had they not been competing with each other for fresh new ways to trump any possible argument I could come up with.
First off, the customer is not always right. There are no absolutes in anything. What you mean to say then is, assume the customer is always right? There's a word for what happens when you assume someone is right, when they are wrong: doublethink. It's brought nations to their knees. Another word for it might be "abject stupidity," or "suicidal foolishness." The very definition of right and wrong require that we are able to tell between right and wrong, so if we assume the customer is always right, the whole system suffers unusual problems.
I'll go into those later. For now I'd like to suggest maybe you mean to say "pretend the customer is always right." That may have some merit, since we are all actors on the stage of society, and people feel good when they're right. On the other hand, it's lying to the customer, blatantly lying. You get caught sugar coating things and your customer will end up in deep shit because you told them they were right, and they believed you. That's your fault.
So believe, assume, pretend, all those are too strong terms for establishing what you mean by "The Customer Is Always Right." What one of my Capitalist friends was suggesting is it's not even as strong as pretending. He said it was all about telling the customer they're wrong in a way that makes them think they are right.
Now, I don't know about you, but I hate when people coddle me and simper for brownie points. When someone goes out of their way to stroke my ego, phrasing an error of mine in a way that makes it sound like their fault, or something aside from my own fault, that gets my hackles up. It's terribly dangerous for someone to be unable to say you're wrong. That's the formula for all the cruel oppressors, all the dictators, all the murderous bureaucrats: since people won't tell them they're wrong, they learn they can do the most extreme things without consequence. This isn't good business practices. This is a moral bankruptcy, where customers are forced into a position that extracts the worst in humanity, in an attempt to make them feel falsely comfortable.
The bottom line is, the company doesn't care about the customer. The company doesn't care about the employee. The stockholders of the company only care about their money, and the board of the company only cares about pleasing its stockholders for lovely insider trading and kickbacks. Public stock is inherently immoral, the worst form of gambling in existence, but ultimately the goal of most companies is not to give the customer a good experience. The goal is to seduce that customer into a mental state so that they damage themselves and pour their money into the greedy hands of the stockholders. "The Customer Is Always Right," is not a technique to help customers; it's a technique to bilk customers, just the same way that casinos offer lavish buffets because people statistically gamble more when they have another excuse to be their besides playing the slots.
If I'm a customer, and I'm wrong, I want to be darn well made aware of that. I like being wrong! What is so bad about being wrong? "I'm sorry, but you're making a mistake. That plant will die come summer. You need something hardier like this one for instance." Beautiful! A wonderful customer experience right there. Of course if the employee is lying it's upselling and should be illegal, but if the employee is honest and polite and forthcoming, then they will attract more business by calling the customer wrong.
What companies want is not the employees to think "The Customer Is Always Right" in any form. What they want instead is something that should be emblazoned on the wall of every employee lounge in every retail chain in the country: "Be polite to the customer." That's a better way to capture the desires of a good business: to satisfy customers, attract return customers and not operate at a loss. Of course corrupt businesses will still say "The Customer Is Always Right" because they're trying to swindle the customer and a false sense of security makes almost any customer easier to rip off. But those people shouldn't be allowed to practice business, and you certainly should not accept them as the norm!
On a final note, some employers say, "You must over-work yourself for the customer, because they're the ones paying your paycheck." That's another deadly wrong statement somewhat related. Never ever forget that the customer to a store is paying the store, that is, the stockholders. They're not paying you. Customers are demanding you deliver their money to the stockholders, and that you deliver their goods, and you get paid a salary for doing this. You get paid a salary by your boss; or however the hierarchy is at your company. That means your boss is your true customer. Make them happy, help them mutually, and you'll be successful whether or not you help the customer who walks through the door. Of course, helping the paying customer eventually helps your customer that is your boss. But if you forget who's really writing your paycheck, don't think for a minute they would hesitate to take advantage of you, milk you for all you're worth, and toss you aside like a limp rag.
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