Best of the ISP-Lists

The Customer is Always Wrong

Members of the ISP-Marketing list disgree vehemently over how you should treat your customers.

[May 16, 2000]

On the ISP-Marketing list in April, PF made this observation about offering promotional devices to new and existing customers:

"I'm offering free web cams to new users who stay for ninety days. I included a deal for existing customers: if they pay six months in advance, they also get a free web cam. A current customer has complained that he should be given the camera for free. I replied 'The camera is free. What else do you want? You pay for 6 months service and you get a FREE (spelled F R E E) web cam. You could PAY $49.95 for a camera, but then it would not be FREE.' Note: 6 months of service is $107.70. Does tax time make people crazy or what?"

Many respondents argued that it is vital to be nice to customers:

[DM took PF to task] "Had any of the people who staff my support lines penned that response they would be looking for something else to do with their days."

[BB agreed] "With responses like that, it's a wonder that you have any customers at all! One of the most important things that you can do is reduce churn and retain paying customers. The cost of acquiring new customers is much greater than keeping your current ones happy."

PF responded with this observation:

"If you really fired anyone who gave a customer what they got, then I do believe that help desks around the world would be empty. There are three rules by which I do business: The customer is not always right; I always have the final word; and it's not if the customer will lie to you, but when. Harsh? Nope. Accurate? Yep."

A number of respondents looked askance at this business model:

[KR wrote] "Do you kick your dog on your way out to work each morning? In our case, we want to: Operate as fast as Fed Ex; love our customers like MindSpring; and dominate our niches like Procter & Gamble. Cynicism may keep you safe from a lot of things, but optimism will, in the end, get you everything."

[PF fired back] "So whenever a customer says he paid, you just credit the account and take the loss?"

[KR responded] "No of course not. I start with the assumption that the customer is telling the truth and something has gone awry. If he's paid, it is easy to ask for some proof. You paint a broad stroke insinuating that customers are liars and cheats. I just don't happen to agree with your policy conclusions, even though I may have handled any single nutcase with less than 'kid gloves'."

PF defended his position:

"You may like to think that customers are correct, but statistically they are mostly wrong, and every company's written policy is geared towards the premise that they are wrong until proven right."

—End