The customer is always right - yeah, right!

There are few statements as stupid, as ridiculous, as 'the customer is always right' - in any case, nobody can seriously make a claim to be always right - for it implies that no matter how nonsensical a customer's demands are, they are right simply because he or she is a customer; no other qualification or consideration is needed. It should not take a genius to see that this cannot be so.

The customer, obviously, is an extremely important creature for any commercial entity, which is why one of the first questions that must be asked when setting up a business - and one that we must continue to ask ourselves throughout its life, as this may change - is 'Who is our Customer?' Once that has been determined with some degree of accuracy we must then ask ourselves "What does our Customer want from us?' With the realistic answers to these questions we then have, clearly laid out, the shape and course our business must take in order to have any chance of being successful. And from then on we must strive to continue keeping our customer satisfied.

This does not mean that the customer has the right to make irrational demands and ask for anything they feel like, nor does it give them the right to behave abominably towards the people providing them with a service or product. Of course any company must bend over backwards to provide the best possible service and/or products within its remit, appreciate and cosset the customer; the customer on the other hand is obligated to be reasonable, demanding but fair, in all his dealings. The customer behaving like a spoiled child is just not part of the bargain, nor should it be viewed charitably, encouraged or even allowed.

Of course the phrase, perhaps like so many other things (religious texts are a good example), may not be intended to be taken literally but as a sort of 'guiding principle', a statement to help reinforce the importance of the customer in a trading relationship; the problems supposedly start with all the idiots who take it literally. In fact the stupidity is in the phrase itself - nobody is always right and never can be - and we should do away with it: the customer is always right when she (or, indeed, he)  is right when the case in question is examined reasonably and only then.

All sides needs to be sensible and pursue 'just' demands, not unreasonable ones, foregoing fairy tales and wishful thinking.