Why The Customer Is Nearly Always Wrong
Transcriber: Ngoc Tran
Reviewer: David DeRuwe
I’m going to dispel the popular belief
that the customer is always right.
The belief and attitude was pioneered
by Harry Gordon Selfridge
of the famous department store
in the UK - Selfridges.
The belief has been shared
by other famous entrepreneurs
over the last hundred years or so -
notably, Cesar Ritz
of the Ritz Carlton Hotel,
He believed the customer was never wrong,
and if they ever had a meal
or wine that they didn’t like,
that it was to be replaced
immediately without question.
And that belief and philosophy
certainly has been behind the success
of the Ritz Carlton hotel chain.
The attitude certainly has utility,
especially when the ball is being dropped,
an expectation has to be met,
a promise hasn’t been filled,
or when there has been a series
of unprofessional acts inside a business
or the utilization
of a product or service.
In that scenario,
the customer has every right
to complain and to control the frame.
Having helped build
many successful businesses,
what I knew to be true
is that the belief
that the customer is always right
simply cannot be applied
to every angle of the customer journey.
What I know to be true is that customers
invest in products and services
to take them from where they are now
to where they want to be
and essentially have one goal -
create a better future for themselves.
Entrepreneurs love solving problems,
making the world a better place,
and want to become the respected
authority for solving problems
with a particular market or niche.
And the belief that the customer
is always right is very disempowering
for the modern-day entrepreneur,
especially if you’re dealing
with customers
that aren’t using a product
or service to its full potential
or those who are skeptical to invest.
And that’s why I want to present the logic
that the customer is nearly always wrong,
and I feel that this
is going to be tremendously valuable
for entrepreneurs who struggle
to deal with customers
who don’t use a product
or service to its full potential,
are skeptical to invest,
or simply very difficult to deal with.
Einstein said something
very true years ago:
“You can’t solve your current problem
with the same level of thinking
that created it.”
Essentially, if your customers knew
how to solve the problem,
they would have done it already.
And if you truly
want lto be a problem solver,
and you want your product
or service to change lives
of people all around the world,
you need to be objectively disruptive.
Objective in the sense
that you use truth to solve a problem
and you stay strictly focused on the facts
and you don’t get distorted
by the emotions and biases
that often skew problem-solving.
Disruptive in the sense
you’re willing to snap the market
out of the hypnosis of complacency
with your marketing, your sales,
and ultimately the delivery
and presentation of your product.
There are three important principles
I want to share with you
to become objectively disruptive:
First things first, you are the expert.
There’s a very good chance you’ve built
a product or built a service
that you once lived
with the problem that you now solve
and safe to say you have spent
thousands of hours researching, studying,
attempting to solve the problem,
to come out with what you have right now -
your product, your service.
You have a deep understanding
of what the market feels like,
and as a result,
have the conviction to know
that you know the way,
you know how to solve the problem.
And as a result of that,
you address the uncertainty in the market
or your customers
with the certainty in yourself
and the product
or service that you created.
Secondly, go hard on the problem,
not on the market.
It’s important to have empathy
for where the markets are at
and understand their emotions,
but you need to tell
what they need to hear,
not what they want to hear.
That quite often involves getting them
outside of their comfort zone.
I’ve helped many successful entrepreneurs,
and I can tell you their best customers
are willing to be wrong
and willing to be steered
in the right direction
and be self-corrected whenever
it comes to solving their problems,
especially, when it
has their best interests
of building a better future at heart.
Third, don’t believe your own hype.
Just like customers can believe
their hype that they are always right,
as a business owner,
it’s easy to get biased
and also lose sight
of the main problems in your business.
Look at the feedback
you’re getting from customers.
Where do they get stuck?
Where do they get confused?
And be in a constant state of iteration
with your product or your service.
And always living within the question
“How can I make my clients, my customers
get better results in a shorter
time frame with less work?”
That frame will allow you
to be highly effective
and highly efficient in the iteration
of your program, product, or service.
So in conclusion,
I want you to be objectively disruptive
and lead your market to truth.
What I know to be true
is that customers have a problem,
and they want the solution,
but rarely are they in the headspace
to actually figure out
that solution for themselves.
Steve Jobs once said that a customer
rarely knows what they want.
So the next time you’re faced with
a difficult customer, bear this in mind.
The customer will always
want to create a better future
over just being right,
and the best way to achieve that outcome
is to be gently authoritative
and tell the undeniable truth
that will lead to permanent change.