خدمت ناعادلانه به مشتریان

Companies commonly adopt “the customer is always right” maxim as a basic premise for delivering quality service. A close examination of customer behavior, however, reveals that customers can be not only wrong but also blatantly unjust. Unfair customers take advantage of being “always right” by demanding unwarranted privileges and compensation, adversely affecting companies and, in some cases, employees and other customers. Companies can actually strengthen their ability to deliver quality service by dealing effectively with unfair customers.

Ten years ago, we published an article titled “Service Fairness: What It Is and Why It Matters” (Seiders & Berry, 1998). Therein, we argued that poor service is not always linked to unfair company practices, but that unfair company practices are always linked to customer perceptions of poor service. We also argued that companies can pay a heavy price when customers believe they have been treated unfairly because customers’ responses to perceived injustice often are pronounced, emotional, and retaliatory. We concluded by providing guidelines for managers on preventing unfairness perceptions and effectively managing those that do arise. Fairness remains a critically important topic today, for it is essential to a mutually satisfactory exchange between two parties. Perceived unfairness undermines trust and diminished trust undermines the strength of relationships. Perceived unfairness is always a negative development. The focus of our original article was company unfairness to customers. Fairness, however, is a two-way street; thus, our present focus is customer unfairness to companies. This time, we examine how customers can be unfair, why it is important, and what companies can do about it. We are ardent champions of the customer, but we do not believe in the maxim that “the customer is always right.” Sometimes, the customer is wrong and unfairness often results. That the customer is sometimes wrong is a dirty little secret of marketing, known to many but rarely discussed in public — or in print. What better occasion to broach this unmentionable topic than Business Horizons’ 50th anniversary?