Customer is Usually Wrong!: Contrary to What You've Been Told...What You Know to Be True! [Paperback]

Fred Jandt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1994

Emphasizing the use of win-win negotiation skills, this revolutionary book explains why the popular adage "The customer is always right," has failed. Includes a frank discussion of customer expectations and the types of services that workers are actually able to provide. Real-life examples of effective supervision and positive employee morale are included.

Product Details

• Paperback: 211 pages
• Publisher: Park Avenue Productions (June 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157112067X
• ISBN-13: 978-1571120670
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,195,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent. A must read for any customer service professional, July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Customer is Usually Wrong!: Contrary to What You've Been Told...What You Know to Be True! (Paperback)

We know the customer is not always right, but how do you tell him/her that and retain the business? This author offers excellent advice on the company's responsibility in creating and managing customer expectations, and negotiating successful resolutions when the customer expects more than you ever promised. Understanding where and how misconceptions can develop and how to redirect has helped our reps successfully resolve misunderstandings while leaving our customers with their dignity.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, December 21, 2005

By 

Negombo "Lo" (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Customer is Usually Wrong!: Contrary to What You've Been Told...What You Know to Be True! (Paperback)

expected to see an objective look at rude customers, and all I got was a few lectures on how to make a customer feel better. I felt like I was back in retail, listening to my boss tell me how I "could have" made a better experience for an extremely rude, irrational and hostile customer.

Sorry, but there are a few nutjobs out there who would be better off, in my opinion, if they received less coddling from management and instead got a public spanking. Issues regarding rude customers have been better and more objectively dealt with on websites like customerssuck.com. I realize there are bad apples in customer service as well, but these days the majority of abuse seems to be handed out by the customers themselves. If you're a business owner or manager, you'd be better off with the book "Angel Customers and Demon Customers".

Slavery may have been outlawed, but some sociopathic nitwits see an opportunity for abusing those who can't fight back whenever dealing with a service person. Management makes the mistake of sacrificing employee dignity for the supposed financial return gained in making an impossible customer "happy". How much of this abuse results in time lost for sick leave, turnover, etc. is a question rarely asked by management or the idiot CEO's who guide them. Or this book.

Retail is in serious need of reform: retailers should quit being so greedy, start seeing their employees as a valuable resource rather than an expendible asset, get back to payimg salespeople commissions, and start paying a living wage. And while they're at it, they should read "Nickel and Dimed".

This book tends to support the old, tired saw "the customer is always right", even though retail these days is clamping down on customer abuse, particularly with returns. As a former clerk, I just wish they'd clamp down on customers who abuse employees, and quit looking at service workers as some sort of replaceable peasant pawns who don't deserve better wages or treatment. The fact that Walmart and other retailers take out what are called "dead peasant" policies on their employees (collecting about 75K for the company in the event an employee dies) should give an idea about what the retail giants and other service firms really think of their workers. Gee, it's no wonder Walmart hires all those elderly "greeters". They make a small fortune if one of them drops dead!