Ah! I just made a post on Facebook about this yesterday:
“The customer is always right… is one of the worst lies we tell service-based businesses. 🤷🏻♀️
Sometimes the customer IS right. Sometimes we miss something, make a mistake, or don’t deliver to our own standards. And when that happens? Own it. Fix it. Move on.
But sometimes the customer booked 4 hours of labor and expected 8.
Sometimes they chose the cheaper service after being told what their home actually needed, and still expected the results of the service they declined.
Sometimes “while you’re here…” turns into an entirely different scope of work.
And sometimes their expectations simply aren’t realistic.
A customer being unhappy does not automatically mean your company did something wrong.
I spent years thinking great customer service meant bending over backward until everyone was happy. It doesn’t.
Great customer service means listening, investigating, communicating clearly, and making it right when you’re actually wrong.
And when you’re not?
You respectfully stand behind your policies, your pricing, and (most importantly) your people.
I’ll lose a client before I teach our team that someone’s money gives them permission to disrespect their time, labor, or expertise.
The customer deserves respect.
So does your team.”
This is exactly how I look at it.
If we make a mistake, we own it. No argument there.
But a customer being upset doesn’t automatically mean the business failed. Sometimes the issue is a mismatch between what they bought and what they expected.
That’s why scope, pricing, and policies have to be clear before the job starts. Otherwise the team gets stuck trying to satisfy an expectation that was never part of the service.
I don’t want my employees feeling like a customer’s payment gives them permission to be talked down to or ignored when they’re following company policy.
Respect has to go both directions.
