Is the customer always right? Personally, I strongly disagree.

[Sam]

Re: Is the customer always right?

Here is something that concerns both philosophy and controversy:



Is he really? Personally, I strongly disagree... The customer is however always the customer. So how do we handle it?

Over to the forum...

/Claes

I agree. Unless the customer is automotive OEM , still they might not always be right, but they are never wrong.

 

[Randy Stewart]

Unless the customer is automotive OEM , still they might not always be right, but they are never wrong.

How right you are Sam. A lot of times, in this business, we have to tell the customer what they want. With lack of customer direction and input, we are always wrong. But if it wasn't for us you wouldn't be seeing the '04 F150's out there!

I'm not much of a truck person, but those bad boys are a nice lookin' and ridin' pick-em up. I appologize for the plug.

 

[WALLACE]

customer education.

It seems to me, according to my current understanding and past experience that, the customer has to initially underdstand what they want, they basically have to be educated. The customer needs to be handed information that can be used and understood. The customer uses the understood information to make the choice of either buying into or rejecting a service, product or thought process that encompasses their current understanding and alignment of a quality characteristic associated with the product, service or thought process developed, produced and distributed.
Just my thoughts of course.
Wallace.

 

[MandOS]

We're currently helping a hospital Accident & Emergency Department with the change to the new standard, and we're also doing work for a police force. Neither of them would find it easy to accept that their "customers" are always right, especially on a Saturday night after the pubs close. Even if you regard the general public as the "customer" of the police, the attitude of the public does not always match up to what is proven to be "good policing".

Perhaps we need to look at balancing the needs of all stakeholders, rather than focussing on "customers" all the time.

Regards

Peter Fraser

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Re: Is the customer always right?

Perhaps we need to look at balancing the needs of all stakeholders, rather than focussing on "customers" all the time.

Regards

Peter Fraser

Interesting outlook Peter... and maybe also a fair description of what we're in fact already doing (because we have to). That would bring us right back to ISO9004:2000, clause 4.3h again, because I honestly do not believe that the customer has anything to gain from pain suffered by the other stakeholders.

/Claes

 

[M Greenaway]

Mandos

I would not consider the drunken yob being arrested by the police for being drunk and disorderly as the customer of the police.

In this case I would say the customer is the general public, to whome the drunken yob is causing a nuisance.

Its the police job to restore order in the community. The community is the customer, not the criminal.

 

[pthareja]

Bob said:

" We don't see alot of this, but we do see it and it is ridiculous and disgusting!!! Especially the FOB part! Partial shipment lost/damaged, and WE are expected to make the claims and replace the parts and possibly take a negative hit in our delivery performance, and probably get a SCAR for something the truckers did.
We are trying inflatable bladders for the trucks, so maybe that will help. We take pictures of each load just before the door is closed. Even when we prove that the load was packed properly, the fact that the trucker drove like an idiot does not take us off the hook. If it was small customers that did it, we would tell them off. But its the big boys, and sometimes on their own truck with their driver.

Customer does have the right to get his purchase right! (san the shipping part, if delivery is accepted by the customer's own trucker).
And hence there have been developments in packaging technology and logistics management. Bob rightly declared,"We are trying inflatable bladders for the trucks". I wish we get kind-of-a-black box installed in the shipping vehicleswhich record the jerks and perks of driving nerds

Thareja

 

[Craig H.]

NASA Technology Strikes Again

pthareja:

How about this?

(broken link removed)

We have not tried it because you have to have someone at the other end to retrieve it.

Craig

 

[pthareja]

Is the Customer always right?

Customer is a vital partner in each business process,
So his 'contract clause' can't be defied for any cess.

Validity of the 'supply criterion' debars all ignorance,
His stated or unstated attributes all get preference.

Customer has the privillege to curse the merchant,
if his coveted requirements weren't put to acid test.

When merchant, paying no cognizance to His quest,
overrules safety & statutory regulations to his best.
To pinch our mother earth out of her fragerant nest,
Shouldn't merchant get a wrath for being dishonest?

But say if customer strikes back with modesty mean,
the cool merchant: high sincerity and no less esteem,
Should the merchant now not forgo his perseverence,
bring customer to books, documenting the nonsense?

&copy Priyavrat Thareja 2003

 

[Simon Timperley]

“The customer is the most important person, he is not dependent on us, we are totally dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work, he is the very purpose of our work. He is not an outsider in our business; he is a part of the business. We are not doing him a favour by serving him, he is doing us a favour by allowing us to serve him”.

Mahatma Gandhi.

The customer might not always be right but as it's Friday let's end on a positive note.

I really love my customers!

Simon