The customer is never wrong.
Well that may be true, but it doesn’t necessarily mean each customer is right, for you. Recently I was approached by a prospective client who was asking for assistance with marketing his business. I listened to him explain everything that he felt was wrong with all aspects relating to his business and its operations, mostly external. This lit the master caution light in my mind. Sure, there are those clients who just don’t start out running their businesses very well, and they struggle along the way. Some crash immediately after takeoff, yet some manage to get a little air, but no significant altitude.
We’ve all dealt, in one way or another, with those who have tried to fly their business by the seat of their pants – their only engine on fire, a hole in both wings and no change for the prayer phone. You can hear the crew screaming at each other and watch as passengers bail out once they’ve experienced the first few minutes of the flight. Those who make the whole trip are definitely not happy with the experience.
Do yourself a favor before making a proposal or entering into a business agreement. Do some investigation into the potential client before making a commitment. In this case, I discovered several red warning lights burning brightly. Sure, some were biased, but there were others that came from reliable and trusted sources. A simple check with the BBB might cause you immediate reason to abort before takeoff!
He was also completely out of the loop as far as what his customers were reporting about him and his business. He wasn’t connected, linked or even dialed into the main mode of modern communications…the Internet. It was something he chose to ignore for unknown reasons – reasons that are probably trivial, compared to the information it could have provided him. Those facts clinched the decision not to accept this client as a customer.
There are only so many things you can do for some people. In this case we declined the job, firmly believing that his predisposition left little room for improvement. Failure is not imminent when poor practices are in place as long as there is an understanding that those practices will need repair and a strategy put in place to overcome past issues. Failure is most probable, however, if nothing is intended to change but the outcome. What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
What would you have done?
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Very interesting piece. This is definitely something I dont think many people give a lot of thought. We get stuck on the mindset of the client always being right. We must always be smart about our decisions make sure our personal interests are still being met.
Thanks for your comment, Vernon. This is often a lesson learned the hard way.
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I had a similar situation about a year back and unfortunately I didn’t listen to my internal warning bells.
I gave the client a proposal, he accepted and things started off okay. After about a month of constant phone calls, emails and texts asking for updates on a project that he agreed would have a timeline of over a month I began to get very, very frustrated.
The project was finally complete about 3 months ago (even though he made dozens of changes along the way) and unfortunately I am still waiting on final payment and it has gotten to the point where he is directed to contact my lawyer when he calls (daily) to make changes to his project.
I really wish I had listened to the warning bells!
Eric
ya its right that say No to the Wrong Customer,no argument on that.
I’ve always heard that same term over and over, “The customer is always right”.
In my opinion, this couldn’t be more far from the truth. I’ve worked in a few different job positions and 99% of the time, the customers have been great but there are certain times when you come across complete egomaniacs. I feel like I could write a whole essay on this, as well as a short book but I’m going to keep it to the point.
Yes, those internal warning bells are usually right on target. Thanks for your comments!