A customer's importance to any business cannot be exaggerated; they are the driving force behind its creation, and if you don't prioritize meeting their requirements and respecting their opinions and choices, you can be sure the business is headed for extinction.
That brings us to the saying, "Customers are always right." I'm sure we have all heard it many times and have wondered why it still holds true in this day and age. The answer is simple: customers are the heart of every business, When they stop doing business with a company because of how the owner or staff has treated them or because the company has produced a product that is below their standards, then we can come to understand that such business will soon fold up due to lack of demand.
When I first graduated from college, a number of years ago, I got a job as a storekeeper and a sales representative, Since that company deals with the filling of gas cylinders and the sale of kitchen and cooking appliances and utensils, I frequently have customers coming in and going out of the store where I work.
But one day, a loyal customer who had bought gas from us before came in furiously and accused us of cheating her. She claimed that we had not sold her the exact kilogram of gas that she had brought the previous time, and the main reason for this was that the gas had run out a week earlier than it usually does.
With such a claim, I apologized before asking if she had changed her cooking routine or if she had been cooking more beans recently, as these are some things that could cause the gas to run out on time. However, she refused to consider any of my suggestions stating that there had not been any changes to her cooking routine.
I apologized again, and she then requested that I refill her gas cylinder. I placed it on the scale to check its weight before filling it with gas, but I made the error of failing to show her the cylinder's original weight before proceeding with the refilling, As a result, after I refilled the precise amount of gas she requested, she yelled that I had again cheated her.
I was annoyed by her claim, but I managed to remain calm and explain that the initial weight of her cylinder was 6.80kg and that after 6kg of gas had been added, the total weight should be 12.80kg, She insisted that I had cheated her by saying that the weight of her cylinder was 7.40kg. Since she refused to listen and was bringing unwanted attention to my store, I decided to add the extra 0.60kg to make things right.
Before she left, however, I asked her to write down the person's claimed weight on the wooden frame outside the store so that it would be clear when next she comes for refilling, She did so, and after leaving, a few weeks later, she returned to the store to refill her gas as usual.
This time, I asked her to put the cylinder on the scale by herself so he could verify the weight of her cylinder before I continued. She did, and we discovered the cylinder weighed 6.80kg as I had stated weeks earlier. I explained to her that what she did the previous day wasn't appropriate, and before I could finish, she apologized and said that he knew she was wrong.
After that incident, we both laugh and quickly forget that anything of the sort ever occurred. In exchange, she invited the majority of her friends and neighbors to use my services whenever they needed to buy appliances or refill their gas. This made me realize that, had we fought on the first day, she would have complained about me to all of her friends, which would have negatively impacted the company's reputation.
Demand and supply is the main tenet of business; customers influence this by making demands for specific products, which businesses must then supply in order to satisfy the demands of the customers. With this understanding, I hope we can all agree that customers are every business owner's top priority and that they must be kept enthusiastic at all times in order for a business to succeed.
That basically sums up my encounter with a customer, and it's an entry for the topic regarding the proverb "customers are always right" that was asked of us to discuss. For more information, check @kronias post.