Is the Customer Always Right-

8/8/2019 Is the Customer Always Right-

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s the customer always

ight????

Group Members

Ankita Kamble 12

Avesh Memon 19

Bhavna Wagh 24

Jitendra Jeet Singh


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No one accepts unhappiness happily. Employer and employee, wife and husband, farmer and

industrialist, teacher and student, doctor and patient, saint and satan - everyone wants to be

happy. So, why not customer? Especially when he pays for what he wants. Since nobody ever

pays for unhappiness, no one bargains for problems.Ensuring customer- happiness or to put it in more acceptable jargon, customer satisfaction is,

therefore, fundamental to customer responsiveness. The more customer responsiveness there is,

the more successful that business will be.

The rise and fall of industries and businesses, unless their economies of operation have been

faulty, can generally be traced to their knowledge or ignorance of customer- needs, the

utilization of that knowledge in developing and producing products, and in aligning their product

delivery processes for achieving customer satisfaction at a level higher than the competitors.

Businesses and industries, which are seen to have adopted the policy of caveat emptor have

suffered- and not surprisingly!

Havent we as customers, depending upon our own personal experience, not recommended, in

favour or against, stores, products or services to our friends and relatives?

And yet all that is required is to pass every single activity of any enterprise including its

manpower, through the customer-sieve. The ratio between what passes through the customer-

sieve and what does not will, by and large, provide the answer to the question of likely

performance of the enterprise, its competitive rating, and areas that need attention.

The customer-sieve is use in a process called customerization which when practiced,

preferably to the extent of obsession, will make a business reach greater and greater heights of

success, partial customerization partial success, and, total customerization total success.

Customerization, both an art and science, is a simple process when practiced sincerely and

zealously. It is really simple listen to customers, respect your customers, respect their needs,value, their feedback, appreciate that you are there because of them, and above all, be humble as

they are superior beings for any business.

:A man without a smiling face and pleasant disposition must not open a shop according to

Chinese proverb. A customer sees the sellers face and senses his interest and attention, rather


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than reads his inner mind or feels the hidden concern. In other words not only must seller be

attentive to his clients needs, he must also show it.

Be demonstrably friendly and genuinely interested in the needs and nuances of your customers.

Under commit and over perform to score high on customer happiness ranking and you will find

that customers will flock to you like proverbial sheep

Customer

Where are they .. Everywhere!

Who are they ...Everyone!

When will they come Any minute!

What will they like . Whatever you sell to them that satisfies their needs with feelings

from your heart and with their benefits in your mind.

You have to know who your customer is. Saying Everyone is exactly like saying No One!!

There is only one boss. The customer!

He can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by

spending his money somewhere else.

- Sam Walton, Founder Of Wal-Mart


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You cant have all the customers.

An organization cant have all the customers. And, to be honest, they dont want all the

customers. If they had them, they wouldnt make any money. The best and most profitable

businesses - dont want all the customers.

Organizations need to know who they want to be their customer. And saying everyone isnt an

answer that is going to keep the organizations in business for long term. An organization needs

to identify specific customer, and then meet the needs of those customers, they need to be careful

and disciplined so they can stay focused on the customers they want to serve. For this the only

mantra is segment, segment and segment. There are always multiple segments within a market.

For e.g. Luxury car buyers are divided into five distinct groups and they try to tailor themselves

as per the offerings given by the company. The LEXUS customer is sophisticated. A person

riding an INFINITI are younger and tend to be early adapters person owning a CADILLAC are

the once who are traditional in the absolute sense of the world, women who buy convertibles like

the MERCEDES BENZ, BMW, etc.. tend to be beautiful and people who own or buy HUMMER

are the once who look out for an SUV that gives them a feel of riding an HARLEY DAVIDSON

with air conditioning and comfortable seats.

Having identified the market, check periodically to make sure it remains your market. If you

dont you will miss out.


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Why a customer is always right.

It ought to be so, but this is not the situation in India today.

Look around. See yourself. Wear the customer cap. Get your inspiration from the saying The

best cure for drunkenness is, while sober, to see drunken men.

See customers at other businesses. Put yourself in the place of a customer. Think customer. Act

customer. You will be in surprises of your life time.

Now, pick up three persons with commonsense and send them to your business as dummy

customers. Pay them well. Give them thirty day contract for a three year period. This is one way

of carrying out a self audit. There can be several better ways; keep trying till you find the best.

The big idea is not to take your customers for granted. With the Indian economy opening up to

foreign investors- so far it is just the beginning your customers may desert you one by one

today, and in hordes tomorrow. Then where will you be.

A dry well pumps no water! You will miss the water when the well runs dry. It will be too late

then. Customers are like water. Water either stay on a level ground or flows down, never up!

So, if you have humility in business, your business field will become lower and water will start

seeping in. Remember, humility is the foundation of all virtues.

How to get humility? Simple. Start treating your customers like your son in laws. You can't go

wrong. Your products and services (daughters) will be happier. And they will, in turn make you

happy and prosperous.

A customer wants very little. He wants a smile when he comes in and if you are busy with an

earlier customer please give him pleasant nod meaning: Sir I will be with you a minute.

86 percent of customers only want this much. Customers are like a flock of sheep and their

behavior pattern is simple- one sheep follows another! So, one annoyed customer is too many -

even Mr. Henry Ford could not afford it! IBM is in trouble. General Motors was in trouble. You

may already be in or can be in trouble. So better watch out!


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One more point.

Every ones you will come across a black sheep! Act fast and throw it out before it poisons the

entire horde. Become a good sheep dog! Keep on looking out for the trouble-makers. To justify

this few reasons have been mentioned about why a customer would be always right. The

organization just has to follow these rules and there wont be any reasons to worry.

1. PUT YOURSELF IN THE CUSTOMERSSHOESIt is a basic and commonsense concept but it has been very wisely said: Common sense is not

very common! Spend ten minutes every day thinking how you can put yourself in your

customers shoes. Difficult? May be. But it will mean more sales. You will gradually learn from

your experience. Listen to your customers; ask questions from them. Look into their eyes, do

something extra for each customer and ask someone whom you respect to give you his objective

observations. Admit your mistakes with your customers gracefully and learn from them.

Start thinking good of your customers and also start doing good to your customers in your

working as well as sleeping hours. You will see the difference in your Profits Account as well asHappiness Account.

Now, the most important thing for a business is to always think of increasing its character,

goodwill and reputation (CGR). Every act at a business either increases or decreases its CGR

factor. The increases in CGR are inch by inch while the decreases in CGR are foot by foot.

Never forget this fact. Most customers are very, very reasonable and each customer has his own

ego. Ego massage of every customer is what business management is all about. Whenever a

business thinks of profits from a customer now, when commonsense dictates otherwise, he doesmake profits but along with it he reduces his profits from the coming year. Managing business,

i.e. managing customers is an art.

Managing your customers better, it is very important that you get customer oriented ideas in your

mind. Your mind is a big thinking machine capable of creating ideas that can work miracles.


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But how to get customer oriented ideas? Simple. Try the following.

Watch your thoughts; they become your words.

Watch your words; they become your actions.

Watch your actions; they become your habits.

Watch your habits; they become your character.

2. CUSTOMER= PROFIT Customer is the profit; everything else is overhead.

Satisfied customers are the only geese that lay golden eggs everyday and forever. Over service

youre present customers a little bit because they are and will continue to be your best prospects

for more business. Whenever you over service, your customers will make a mental note of the

over service and gradually your good reputation will spread. It takes up to three years for such

reputation to spread and in any business it is worth it.

When deciding to buy products and services, the customer considers not only what it costs him

in terms of money, but what it costs him terms of time. And it is well said that time is money.

Therefore, sell convenience, may be by having longer working hours in your workshop and your

stores, effecting home delivery, and so on.

Use your minds eye to remove the small difficulties and anxieties of your customers. It may be

only getting the fan belt tightened ten minutes if a mechanics time, but, for the customer it

means more peace of mind as he will get better charging of the battery. It is easy to overhaul the

engine, say, by just doing a ring job or better tuning up, you will bring a smile to your customers

face. Your reputation will spread. Smile by smile. You will make your customers happy and

they will reward you through their repeat business. Those who look after their customers reap the


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profits. Any activity which is not meant to profit the customer now or later- directly or

indirectly is overhead. And a business cannot afford the luxury of overheads.

Always remember that profit is not a dirty word. But, at the same time, putting profit before

quality and service is like putting the carriage before the horse. Take it from me that if you do so,

your business wont move.

And also do not forget that if a business is sailing with a heavy load of overheads, it will

gradually sink to the bottom of the market ocean. Axe your overheads. Review them every

month, not just once a year. Eliminate all those activities which are not related to helping

customers.

3. CUSTOMER= BUSINESS = PEOPLE = CUSTOMERSIf you dont like people get out of your business! You can never make a success of whatever you

do not enjoy doing. And secondly, if you do not have or cannot have worthwhile work to be done

in your business, you will not get people- both employees and customers.

When jobs are not big enough for people, they start working mechanically on them. Jobs, thus,

become boring because they are no more interested and start losing focus in the jobs.

May be, these are tough problems, but any businessman must be able to handle to a fair degree of

satisfaction before he can get its 3ps from the business, viz.,profits, pleasure and peace.

Customer is business: Business is people: People are customers. That makes it a circle of all of

moving in self-created circles.

Profits, pleasure and peace play a very important role defining the circle of customer satisfaction.


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For businessmen, his service employees are people. If they are not satisfied he can never have

satisfied customers. Its simple but often ignored fact.

Many a business have succeeded without proper service facilities, none without proper

servicemen. To make it easier to understand, ordinary people with average intelligence and

initiative, when treated with respect and dignity as individuals, given training and motivation,

turn out to be good servicemen. Its businessmen themselves are the best people to do it for their

employees, by thinking, listening, reflecting and understanding during the working and non-

working hours.

Customers How to get them, serve them and keep them? A very big question with simple

answers:

Customer

Satisfaction

Profits

PleasurePeace


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For example: When a customer wants to buy a car, he calls the company to have test drive of

that specific car. Its the time when the customer gets the feel and experience of the car and tries

to identify if it suits his comfort.

In other words, it helps the customer to reduce his costs and save his valuable time by

experiencing the product. This increases productivity of the organization to retain the customer

through the product.

4. CUSTOMERISTHE BOSSThere never has been, there is not now, and there never will be any boss but the customer. He is

the one boss you must please. Everything you own, he has paid for. He buys for your home, your

cars, and your clothes. He pays for your vacations and puts your children through school. He will

give you every promotion you will ever obtain during your lifetime, and he will discharge you if

you displease him.

Everything depends on how you treat this boss - your customer. The great law which lies at the

foundation of all life, business and personal is that our rewards in life will be in exact proportion

to our service.

A customer can take away his business to a place wherever he gets better value for his money,

better service and better ego massage He does not have to give reasons for his action; it is his

money and he can spend it where he likes or the way he likes.

5. PURPOSE OF BUSINESSTO CREATE CUSTOMERSNo customers, No Business. Simple.

But more often than not we forget this simple truth how to create customers?


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This is not a simple question but the answer to it is so simple that very few believe in them and

even fewer implement them. Here are the answers to the basic questions:

Answer no.1- Meet your customer personally.

Remember the wise saying: If you are not busy meeting your customers you are forcing them to

visit your competitors. Look for opportunities to meet your customers- you can never overdo it.

When you sit outside, you are silently. Whispering to your prospects and customers that you are

waiting for their business and also that whenever they have a problem they can talk right away to

you. By doing so, you become a business who listens to its customers.

Shake hands with your customers, personally offer them a cup of tea, enjoy their smells and soon

these will become aromas. Consider your prospects and customers like currency notes they are!

Kishore Biyani of Big Bazaar fame doesnt visit his store. He should at least visit his store in

order to get the idea as how the customers react or what is their buying behavior.

Answer no. 2 - Become trustworthy to your customers.

There is a wise saying: The more your customers trust you, the more they buy from you. Lose

your profits, if you have to, but honour your promises and commitments. And leave it to your

customers to be the final judges of what you had said yourself, through your salesmen, through

your ads, through your mail shots, and so on when you had first approached them. Never forget

that even an ordinary looking customer is a decision maker or influencer in his own house and

his opinions matter a lot. He has enough commonsense to see through your intentions to your

trustworthiness. When you think that you can outsmart him you are only fooling yourself in the

long run. Become a fair minded person and keep on cross checking with such an employee of

yours, whom you think is fairly balanced and has commonsense.

Answer no.3- Deeds vs. Words.

One small deed for your customer accomplishes more than a thousand words. For example, once

a car was not picking up speed and the car owner anxiously went to garage anticipating for three


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hours and Rs.300 down the drain. The garage owner took less than three minutes; his small deed

was loosening the wing nut on the air cleaner.

This says that keep on helping your customers, keep on doing small, small deeds and they keep

on coming back to you.

And now the big answer to the question: How to create customers for the business? The

answer is:Competition is an opportunity. Many of us self discourage ourselves by believing

that our industry is a tough one and our job is a difficult one while that of the others is easy. No!

It is human nature that an average man sees greener pastures on the other side of the fence. Since

competition is an opportunity, start looking after your employees better than others so that they

do not desert you and, in turn, they start looking after your customers and your products.

Why the customer isnt always right.

It is not necessary that customer should always be right. You are in business and in business you

dont have to take every deal. You can draw the line at abusive behavior by the customer. You

can draw the line at customers lying to take advantage. You can draw the line at customers

stealing. In fact, you can draw the line anywhere you want. There are stores not letting people in

because they dont look rich enough. In business, discuss when you do not longer want a

customer. So everybody in the business knows that the customer that crosses the line is no longer

called a customer. There have been cases where the customer has been wrong but this majorly

happens in small transactions. There are few reasons listed down on why the customer is not

always right.

1. When the customer demands, demands and only demands.It is not possible for an organization to fulfill each and every demand of the customer

every time.


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For e.g. In case of car service centre

A customer claims that he had forgotten his tennis racquet in the car before leaving it for

servicing even though he may have lost it somewhere else. The service provider may pay

him the cost of the racquet at the first time but if the customer repeats the instance again

then this time the service provider may not refund the amount and would not mind

hurting the customer and let him go to some other service provider.

2. When the customer is dishonestFew customers are such who try to cheat the organization or put their fault on the

organization and like to enjoy the products or services free of cost.

For e.g. An instance at SHOPPERS STOP

A person buys a toy for his son from SHOPPERS STOP and goes home; his son breaks

the toy while playing. The next day he goes to SHOPPERS STOP and shouts at the

salesgirl that she gave him a broken toy by creating a scene and asks for a exchange of

the same product free of cost. The manager being helpless has to exchange the product

free of cost.

3. The customer feels he is always right - A PERCEPTIONIt is a human tendency to feel whatever you do is always right and the customer being a

human feels the same. If he is proven wrong he does not like as his EGO gets hurt and

because of this may stop coming to that store. So at this point an organization cant do

anything but to leave the customer on its own.


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4. Some customers are simply bad for businessMost businesses think that the more customers the better. But some customers are quite

simply bad for business. By saying this we mean the customers who treat your employeesbadly or rudely. It is not a question of whether either company would make or lose

money on that customer in the long run. It is a simple matter of respect and dignity and of

treating their employees right.

5. Some customers are just plain wrongThe fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that business is better off without

them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over employees is a very

bad idea, that results in worse customer service.

All businesses should use great care and concern when determining how their customers

are treated. The time, energy and cost associated with acquiring a customer are

substantial and likewise the benefits of retaining customers are considerable.

That being said, there is a point where customers can begin to abuse the good will of the

business who work hard to earn their money. The good news is that most customers are

worth the time and effort expended to retain their business over a long haul.

So, which are the customers who become the worst nightmare?

These customers are the verbally abusive customers who expect special consideration and

whose demands far exceed the boundaries of reason. There is in fact a point where bad

customers can erode margins, negatively affect morale or even tarnish a brand. These

customers not only are not right, they deserve to be fired.

What the customer really wants??

Customers do not want you to overcharge them, both in terms of money and time. When a

customer buys from you, i.e. when he decides to buy from you rather than from others, he puts

his trust in you. He is always apprehensive that you may cheat him and he will lose his face


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when he goes home or when his friends come to know that he has been cheated. This is the fear

of failure complex. Therefore, a businessman, ensure that you keep on conveying to your

customers that they are getting something extra- this extra for their loyalty to the business.

Customers would like you to make profits but it should be a transaction where both parties

benefit the most.

Customer is the boss, yesterday, today and tomorrow. And he does not want you to forget this.

As soon as he forms the opinion that you have taken his business for granted he will fire you.

The customer wants that a business must work every time to get its repeat or additional business.

Again, this work can be in terms of money, time, service, respect, and so on. Wise business

achieves this objective by putting more of you than I whenever they walk to their regular

customers. Treat the customer with respect, dignity, and reverence. Not only will he keep you

employed but will also give you more profits.

A wise businessman always assumes that all his customers are going to desert him and

accordingly he walks that extra mile to make each of his customers happy and satisfied. He

knows that it costs six times more to get a new customer than to serve the customers he already

has.

It never pays to pamper a few at the cost of many and every customer appreciates a fair deal. All

he needs is attention when he walks in and speed breakers to hold his attention while he is

waiting to be served.

And finally, if a customer is becoming unreasonable for say, the third time, it is time for this

customer to be pushed over to the competitors. Let them have the misery of handling him.


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What can the organizations do to know their

customers

Understanding Your Customers

The inability to know your customers is the greatest loss, you, as a potential service provider can

face. Since you are nothing without your customer, your first priority should be to know them

and what they want and expect from your company or product. Moreover, knowing them not

only increases your chances of selling them more goods, leading to your profit, but also causing

the inflow of more customers through recommendation. Hence getting to know your clients,

greeting and treating them to their liking is crucial to the success of your business venture. This

kind of rapport with your client is even more essential if you keep in mind the nature and thedegree of aggressive marketing your fellow business rivals conduct everyday. Your primary

asset in business are your clients, this is because if you know their mentality and gauge their

buying trends and their preferences, you have the market in hand. This kind of valuable customer

information will also enable you to replenish stock, get the most viably trendy products in the

market, thereby satisfy your customers and in the process entice them into come back again to be

serviced. Moreover not knowing your customers will only hinder your chances at success to a

greater degree because if you do not know what pleases your customer, you will never know

how to approach them. Some might like curt matter of fat dealings, while another might like that

occasional chitchat and hello. So if you do not know who likes what you will only end up

causing them dissatisfaction and yourself economic loss, due to sheer ignorance and simple

lacking of planning. Moreover if you sit down and think about it this abstract market that you

talk about is no one but the sum total of your customers. So if you want to target the market, then


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this is the bunch you have to satiate and cater to. What your customer says is very important for

you and your overall success. After finishing one deal you instinctively try to convince them to

buy something else; this is only natural and can be called maximizing profit. But what you

should also be doing simultaneously is trying to egg out information about their economic status,

what they can afford and what not, what thy need next in their household which might come

from your shop.

All this will help you in fixing future deals with them and wooing them back to your shop. So

always engage in conversation with them and most importantly listen to them, they might be

unconsciously divulging information that might eventually give you an edge over youre your

next door rival service provider.

1. Who is more important? Customer, Employee or Both???The answer to this question is both. The employees are just as important as the customers and

they need to be treated just as well. Why? For one thing, its the right thing to do. For another its

in the companys self interest. The organization has to treat their employees in a good way, in

order to get their customers treated well. It is very important for an organization to create a work

environment which is professional, pleasant and efficient. This helps the employees to be

motivated and be happy which leads to good productivity. A customer is important because he is

the persons who gives us revenue and helps to be in business for long run.

2. Ask your customers what they want And give it to them!!Its all about providing your customers with the best services and living up-to their expectations.

For example, as a company doesnt assume things. There are no rules set that say all customers

must be greeted in thirty seconds or that the phone has to be answered by the second ring. Rules

like that are created by people who assume they know what customers want. If we give

customers a chance to talk, and if were willing to listen, theyll let us know exactly whats

important to them.


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In business as in most retail businesses - the conventional wisdom is that customers hate to be

attacked by a sales-person the moment they walk through the door. In fact, they walk around

the store or showrooms for five minutes, getting acclimated, before anyone goes over to talk to

them. The only thing that matters is what the customer wants. And the only way to know for sure

what they want is to ask them.

For example, to make it easy for them to tell us what they want create a short questionnaire

no more than 5 questions preferably 3 that focuses on the most important parts of doing

business with us from the customers point of view. An easy way to get 100% responses is to

give customers that short survey when they pay. That way, they can fill it out while the cashier is

totaling their bill. They shouldnt be forced to fill the questionnaire.

The whole idea behind asking them questions is to create a place where people are going to be

happy to do business.

3. If the customer asks, the answer is always Yes!!For a business to work, it has to convince it customers that there is something more valuable than

money. So to be successful they have to offer something else to its customers that something is

convenience. Any time a customer asks if its possible for us to do something, the answer is yes.

Heres an example of a cab service company in US who talks about its one of the most valuable

customer - A customer who lives half the year in Dallas and the other half in France. When she

was coming from Paris last year she called us up and said she planned to spend some time in

New York before returning home, but she didnt want to rent a car there. She said all New York

rental cars were dirty and smelled of cigarette smoke. She wanted to know if we could rent a car

for her in Dallas and have someone drive it to New York, and turn it over to there. They could

and they did.

The moment the customer says Can you. We should be prepared to answer yes, even if we

cant immediately figure out how to do when they want. Stretch ourselves to an extent and dont

charge for the extra service if we can help it. If the customer asks if we can do something for

him, the answer is always yes, providing the request is somehow related to our business.


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4.Do it right for the first time!!Customer expectations of service providers are loud and clear. Customers want serviceorganizations to look good, be responsive, be assuring, be empathetic, and most of all be

reliable. Customers want firms to do what they say they are going to do. Nothing makes a

customer madder than a business that doesnt do what it promises.

Too often when people talk about customer service, they spend time explaining what to do after

someone screws up. How we make amends for doing something wrong is important, of course,

but if we do the job right initially, we dont have anything to apologize for. At the very least,

good customer service requires us to do the job right for the first time.

Lexus is the best example for that. Conventional wisdom among new car buyers has always

been: Dont buy a new car in its introductory year. Give them a year to get the bugs out.

But today consumers no longer give manufacturers a grace period. They have no reason to wait.

There are too many options already out there. Either get it right for the first time or risk being left

behind forever. Lexus, under the initial leadership of Dave Illingworth and Ted Toyoda, got it

right, right from the start. They spent seven years in the relentless pursuit of perfection. They

built 400 prototypes, instead of usual 12 and they focus-grouped the car extensively. Dave

consistently worked 100-hour weeks and Ted moved his family to US at the beginning of the

project to make sure nothing was overlooked. Nothing was and they got it right for the first time.

The most important thing to a customer is: Do you do what you promise? Keeping your word is

worth more than all the empathy, smiles and chocolates on your pillow in the world.

Keep the service promise. Doing what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, is

the very minimum required to provide good customer service. Sell the product you like the best.

If you only recommend the best product for the job, or only suggest the best way of going about

it, your customer is bound to end up happier than if you try to cut corner or sell him something

he didnt need. The result is customer is likely to come back.


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Is the Customer Always Right-