Is the customer always right?
Keeping customers happy is the job. Some customers make the job impossible.
Sales & negotiation
The customer is always right
Keep every customer happy.
An old shopkeeper’s rule: treat every complaint as fair. A happy regular brings back far more than winning one argument ever would.
- Right when
- When the customer is a regular worth keeping and the complaint is cheap to fix. A small refund buys years of loyalty.
- For example
- A regular at a tailoring shop says her kurta is a little tight. Redoing it free costs ₹200. Her next five years of orders are worth many times that.
- Wrong when
- When always giving in trains a few customers to demand more and pay less every time.
Sales & negotiation
Firing a customer
Some customers aren’t worth it.
Some customers cost more than they pay: endless haggling, late payments, angry calls. Letting them go frees time for the ones worth keeping.
- Right when
- When a customer costs more in time, discounts and stress than they bring in, and keeping them hurts the customers who pay fairly.
- For example
- A small agency’s smallest client pays ₹30,000 a month but takes half the team’s time with endless changes. Letting them go frees that time for clients who pay more.
- Wrong when
- When “difficult” really means a customer telling you something true you didn’t want to hear.
What decides it
Is this customer worth more than they cost?
Treat customers as right when they’re worth keeping, which is most of the time. But count what each one really costs: time, discounts, stress. The rare customer who costs more than they pay is better off with someone else.
Was this useful?