In the grand scheme of things, the customer may have slightly more pull than the cashier ringing up their order, but it’s the CEO and the board of directors that control the narrative. That’s why we’re getting bigger and less fuel efficient vehicles, bigger and more fattening meal portions in restaurants, and bigger less affordable houses.
The whole saying is actually “The customer is always right, in matters of taste.”
This is the correct answer. All of the other explanations are dancing around this: no matter what YOU think of a particular product, if a customer is willing to buy it then YOUR opinion must be the wrong one.
I think OPs point was the exact opposite. They give three examples where “matters of taste” are narratives guided by boardroom profit in the last twenty years rather than actual consumer preference.
People didn’t want bigger cars. Corporations made bigger cars to circumvent American fuel efficiency regulations (because it’s cheaper to circumvent a law than it is to make a more efficient engine), and convinced consumers bigger is better. Size difference between the #1 selling truck in 1950 and 1990 is nothing compared to the difference between pre-CAFE and present day.
People don’t want huge, fattening meals when they go out. It’s cheaper for companies to give “more”, “saltier”, and “fattier” meals than it is to create “tastier” ones, and for the most part we’ve been hoodwinked again. I’m talking about the “buy one for here get one free to take home” promotions at Applebee’s.
People have been convinced owning a home is “the American dream”. Construction companies have found they can put a 2800sqft house on a .25 acre plot just as easily as they can a 1400sqft house, so that’s all they build. “Starter homes” aren’t as profitable as they used to be, so the companies are banking on the narrative they’ve created to force people out of apartments and into gigantic houses because it’s the “American dream”.
TBF, nobody unironically uses “the customer is always right”, other than entitled boomers who want to speak to the manager…
Inevitably the manager turns out to be some kid who isn’t any other than the staff member, and has no more authority anyway because the real powers that be are all in corporate offices.
The manager only has any real power if the business is privately owned not a branch of some megacorp.
The saying has been corrupted. Selfridge originally meant the saying to mean customer complaints should be treated seriously so that customers do not feel cheated or deceived. Nowadays people take it to mean the customer can do no wrong and is king of all he surveys.
More that the customer has ultimate veto power over any deal. You can do everything absolutely perfectly, and the (potential) customer can still decide the deal is “wrong” and walk away completely.
You don’t have to convert every potential customer into an actual customer, but an actual customer will only convert if they believe they are “right”.
An actual customer can do no wrong, but not everyone who walks through your doors is an actual customer.
I always thought it was supposed to reference market sentiment.
If your company is focused on X, but is also doing Y, and the market is really taking up with Y, you need to focus on keeping Y alive and well. Makes for a successful company to respect the market’s wishes, and allows you to pursue X while Y is subsidizing it.
If you insist that X is the future, and put Y on the back burner to focus on X, well, the market will find a competitor who is doing Y better than you, and the market will abandon you.
“The Customer is Always Right” originally referred to the pricing of an item. Meaning if the customer thinks it’s a good price, then you’ve picked a good price. That’s it. It was never meant to be used as an excuse to bend over backwards to your customer’s every whim
I thought it was more about the design in the context of working with a client to make a custom product where they tell you the purpose and give you specs, you see that the product they are asking for sucks for the stated purpose and try to point that out but they argue it. At that point, just make the product they are asking for and let them sort out the rest. It’ll probably mean more money for you because they’ll be back to ask for the changes you originally suggested. Or who knows, maybe they are actually right.
The full quote is “The customer is always right in matters of taste.”
In matters of taste.
They’re still idiots. But people forget that second part, and become extremely entitled little shits.
The problem isn’t the customer’s expectations (within rational limits of course) the problem is all the levels of managent giving the customer satisfaction because they don’t understans, and always forget thr last part about taste.
I know, that if I go to a Walmart and start a big enough fuss, Walmart will give as little as they can (to often monetarily desperate) to get them to stop causing a scene.
I worked in electronics, and per protocol had to inspect a returned PS2. It was physically beat up, had paint splotches on it, and it would not power on, and thr serial number was missing.
I said no. Simple as that. Not paid enough to fight customers. They wanted a manager. Two hours later they walked out with fucking cash.
