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This is a true story that recently happened to a close friend’s son who lives and works in Washington D.C. Her son walked into a popular coffee shop and ordered an espresso-over-ice drink. The barista refused to make the espresso-over-ice drink and, according to an account of the incident said, “We don’t do that because it will ruin it. We make the best espresso in the city and putting it over ice will shock it.” Needless to say, my friend’s son wasn’t happy. He walked out of the shop miffed and wrote about the incident on his Facebook page. The story went viral, was written about in a popular Washington D.C. blog, picked up by the Huffington Post and mentioned on a national morning talk show. It’s caused quite a controversy.
Today, I would like your opinion. Is the customer always right? Or did that age-old adage go out with the last century? Have you ever had an incident in your promotional products business where you turned away business because the customer asked you to do something that you believed would ruin the order? Would you openly disagree with a customer, even if meant you would lose the business? Is there a tactful way to disagree with your client and still salvage the order?
What have you done, or would you do, when asked to do something on an order that you disagree with? I’d love to hear your comments below!
© 2013 Rosalie Marcus
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Rosalie Marcus, The Promo Biz Coach ™ is a promotional products business expert, coach and speaker. Combining her skills and years of experience in promotional sales, she helps her clients sell more at higher profit margins and dramatically increase their incomes! Get a FREE special report: 10 Big Mistakes Promotional Professionals Make and How to Avoid Them and a FREE Skyrocket Your Sales audio download at http://www.promobizcoach.
Reach her at Rosalie@promobizcoach.com or 215-572-6766.
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Yes.
I had argued at length over digits stored in databases for the year, extensively and often in the 20 years leading to the new century when I was programming (I have a tech services arm) for some pretty big companies. No way would I be called out after 2000 for not stridently advising against two digit dates.
I have rejected art ideas for screen printed products that I knew would not render well.
I sold cars for a bit (32 mo.s ave. 12/mo. during a recession in a small town) after breaking a screen printing partnership (over customer treatment issues, partner was jerkish like that) and essentially talked myself out of a Camaro deal in 1991 as I repeatedly warned the young man about his impending insurance costs. He left, went across street and bought a new Firebird. Four months later I took that Firebird in on trade against a Cavalier, true story. Further, when I left the car business , his businessman uncle contracted me to guide his printing company into the digital age in pre-press op.s. His company now employs 92 people in 75,000 square feet and is one of the top 50 trade printers today.
I could go on – and on – even recent incidents, that ended up paying off.
Your Reputation for INTEGRITY MUST be more important than a sure sale.
The point is, can you in good conscious do things you know darn well are ill advised? Will you be party to the disaster? To my good fortune, being appropriately disagreeable has, in almost every case, paid off better than if I had played along.
addendum – are you an order taker? Or a true sales professional?
Is the customer always right? Well in their mind they are. That doesn’t meant we need to simply accept their view as fact. However if we are going to keep them as a customer we need to look at things from their view and see if we can and want to accommodate them. Perhaps we can broaden their view. While this is tempting, in practice changing peoples minds is very difficult to change.
In the case of barista v espresso-over-ice, it would be valuable to know (ask) if the customer has previously drank their espresso over ice. Then expressed fear that preparing espresso this way would ruin it. A consultative selling approach.
I would have accommodated and saved the sale, but lost out the the viral attention generated by the refusal.
Yes. The client is always right. But, there are incidents that we need to explain to them what can work better.
I have turned down orders.Yes we have turned down orders, because ultimately we are responsible. Our reputation and good name goes along with every product that we sell. There have been incidents that a client has approved art or an item and I have seen it and felt it was inferior spoke with the client to make necessary changes. The worst thing that can happen is you do a so-so job for someone, the client thinks it is great. Hands them out and the product is less then perfect and someone asks “Who did you get that from” that person notices the imperfection. Need I say more.
I consider myself a professional with integrity and expertise. I have a obligation to advise the client on whether the project will work well or not – if artwork is up to satisfaction or not. Based on my experience and advise given to me by technical experts I will educate my clients on how to make it better.
If they still refuse to take my advice or consider alternate solutions, then in a nutshell – yes, I have walked away from projects .
My reputation and integrity – in addition to my company’s reputation far outweighs the need to make a quick sale that will end in disaster.
Funny enough – those same stubborn clients who did not take my advice initially came back to me and said, `You were right! We should have taken your advice – how can we fix it!`
No doubt, it’s amazing those who appreciated our candor and later rewarded us with business. Those tend often, to be the very best customers and referral sources, too.
Sometimes, we get in this situation taking on someone who should not be our customer in the first place. if you have a bad feeling, that will probably keep existing. Cut and run as fast as you can.
I am thinking of one customer that was so demanding. When she came back a year later for something, I was very proactive and did a good job anticipating her questions. But still she found ways to be difficult. I told her that she needed to work with someone else. I was not going to be able to give her the quality I wanted to give. She retorted that she knew it wasn’t going to work out, she knew I was going to do a slip shod job. Really? Why are you here if you have no confidence in me???
it is hard to say no, we are pleasers…but doing creative work like this requires collaboration. The minute you get beyond numbers to creating a project, that is not a customer…they should be responsible for part of the burden of a project well done…a partner which has opinions that matter….but yours do too.
These are great comments. I can see we have many in our industry that have experienced this type of situation. I agree with many of you who expressed that your reputation and integrity are more important than a sale! Let’s keep the comments coming.
i agree with Joe. I have, with some degree of regret, parted ways with a few customers. When the client becomes so anal, that they take out a ruler & measure the embroidery location on a golf shirt…..and demand that it be in the SAME EXACT location on each shirt…..it’s time to cut bait! Another company called me numerous times wanting something, only after I put forth tons of effort on their behalf, they tell me they had to order from “an approved” vendor. So next time they called needing some knit hats in a hurry, I told them I would LOVE to help, but understood they were REQUIRED to order from an APPROVED vendor. End of story.
I will go to any lengths to accommodate a loyal customer….but sometimes the best thing you can do with some customers is “SHAKE HANDS & PART AS FRIENDS”.
We are about to fire a client for being impossible to deal with. She screams and carries on that nothing is ever right, and it’s always her doing. She never completes order forms that she requests; never notes the correct sizes and this time, the straw that breaks the camel’s back – she okayed the incorrect graphic.
Three hundred shirts. Wrong artwork. They wore them! And she wants a refund. It’s either her or my staff!
Asta la vista baby!
Nan! That’s the kind of customer you don’t won’t. They’ll never be happy.
I’ll second your Asta la vista!
The customer is always right in their mind. Under the circumstances one could tactfully discuss the customer’s order and if the customer is insistent that the order is what they want then give it to them or lose the customer!
The old saying: “Customer is not always right but never wrong!” If I absolutely know something won’t work I would do the best to explain why,, If they refuse to except the whys I gracefully walk away!
JP,
I agree with you. Better to walk away then have problems later.
No, fortunately they are hardly ever right! That’s why we are in business. To show them the best way to promote their event or business.
Are customers always right? The difficult ones to work almost always with think so. In turn,the vast majority appreciate our assistance/feedback on: color, placement, product and production issues. We approach our relations with distributors as partners working together to solve their client’s promotional need. Therefore, when past experience tells us that their client’s initial visual effect will not look good, we always share our experiences with our customers as a way of explaining where we are coming from as we work to give them our best service possible. We will actually show them different art options, color, placement etc and also explain why their initial approach will not reproduce effectively.
99% of the time, we – the distributor and us, as their partner, are able to work with the end user to create the best product possible. A win, win win for all concerned. For those who will not budge, we have them sign off that we are not responsible for the final appearance and require prepayment. In half of those instances this brings them around to the best print/production option. For the others they choose not to order from us. They fired themselves and usually the distributors thanks us later.