THAT ONE CUSTOMER

I, for one, believe that "The customer is always right" is a motto or slogan that exhorts service staff to give a high priority to customer satisfaction. Customer complaints should be taken seriously so that customers do not feel cheated or deceived.

In addition, saying the customer is always right doesn't make it true. Sometimes customers are wrong, and business owners or employees, whatever the case may be, need to be trained to handle these challenging situations. It can create even more irrational expectations and set you up for failure when you take responsibility for something for which you are not at fault.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I said that. Just pay close attention, and I'll explain in more detail shortly. 

In case you didn’t know, I’m an entrepreneur who makes beautiful frames at affordable prices. So now you should understand why I made that statement earlier: as an entrepreneur, I've dealt with a wide range of people when it comes to business. When I say different kinds of people, believe me because I know what I’m talking about.

Now, to that one Customer…

For the past two years that I’ve been in business, I haven’t really had issues with any of my clients because I deliver my job well and on time—I mean, I deliver right before the deadline. I handle my business with the utmost diligence and efficiency because I operate with the quote that says, "Whatever your hands find doing, do it well."

On the 5th of July last year, I got a message from this customer saying that she wanted to make a photo frame for one of her friends' mothers. We struck a deal, and I was supposed to deliver three days later. Two days later, I was finished with the job _{(as I previously stated, I delivered ahead of schedule)} and ready to go.

I sent her the picture of the frame before sending it out for delivery because I usually wrap the frame when sending it for delivery because of privacy. As usual, whenever I send my clients a picture of their job, I receive positive feedback as to how good I am at making photo frames, lol.

Unfortunately, the reverse was the case this very day. "Why did you change the color of the frame?" "This size does not look like what I paid for," and so many other complaints were what I got that very day instead of the usual good compliments. At this point, I was already confused and emotionally depressed. So many things were going through my head at that moment because I had never experienced something like this before. I just had to calm down to reply to her accordingly without being rude.

Firstly, she gave me her specifications; she had earlier stated that she wanted a white and gold frame for her job, so I sent a frame that I had already made as a sample, not that I was going to use that exact frame. So she thought I was going to use that exact frame; I guess that was her expectation, but I couldn’t use that exact one because it was out of stock.

So I had to resort to making use of another frame, which is still within the specifications that she gave me, but she was insisting that I should have informed her before I went ahead to frame it, which I think she was right. At this point, I actually admit that I was wrong but I thought I could rescue the situation by using another kind of frame that would be identical, but unfortunately she had made registered in her brain the sample I sent to her earlier.

After settling that, the next one was, "This size isn’t looking like what I paid for," and then I told her firmly, still trying not to be rude, that I would never in any way make a lesser size than what my client asked me to do! In fact, I had to kindly ask her to find a measuring tape, measure the frame, and confirm the size, then she did and confirmed so.

Then, after we had both gone back and forth on the argument on who exactly the knuckle head was, she eventually did measure and discovered that she had made false allegations. At the end, I guess we were both knuckle heads, firstly, that I didn’t inform her about the new developments on the changes I was going to make and secondly, that she made baseless allegations on the size of the frame.

After we resolved the wrestle, she still ended on the note, "At least the customer is always right!" …insinuating that she, you know, has the upper hand. I only smiled and tried to end the conversation so it wouldn’t lead to a rift.

After this experience, I got to understand how to relate with customers better, now I know better to inform customers on new developments during transactions.

We managed to end on a friendly note and now having resolved the issue she still refers me to most of her friends, which I deliver well without issue, and she also patronized me sometime early this year. I was able to get those referrals and patronage because I was able to treat her complaints respectfully without making her feel cheated and deceived.

It's important to remember that, while they may not always be correct in fact, customers are always right in their own minds, It’s not in any business owner’s best interest to tell a customer that they are wrong.