"The customer is always right" is a virtue that just about every person I've ever met knows. We remember it like we would our birthday or something that we'll never forget because it's a free pass for the customer. If the customer is always right, then the customer and all his buddies get a free pass to run wild all over the staff of wherever they're spending money, metaphorically or literally. It's usually applied fairly because the customer is really the entire reason that any sort of business exists. All that being said, I've seen it get taken way too far, way too many times.
I'm 21 years old, and so far I've held seven different part-time jobs. I was a busser, then a shake-maker at Steak 'n Shake. After that, I worked at Winn-Dixie as a bag boy until they let me cashier for a couple days, and I was right back down to a mere bag boy. I even got a job as a lifeguard that summer at my local county pool one summer. I then worked as a "Delivery Expert" at Dominos (yeah it was the best job I've ever had). For a very brief time, I worked as an after school counselor for elementary school kids, and now I'm a food runner at a Japanese steakhouse. Working at all these different places has given me an interesting perspective on the customer/employee relationship. It taught me that I should never have to wait 15 minutes after I've ordered at Steak 'n Shake to get my food, that's for sure. More importantly, I finally learned that there are plenty more customers than just you and I, each and every day, so our complaint isn't even close to the most important or only one.
I've seen people go out and expect everything to go perfect just for them, and that would be really nice but just like Andre "3000" Benjamin said, "you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can't predict the weather", so it isn't the end of the world when your Thin 'n Crispy pizza comes out a bit crispier than you initially understood. Things like this happen, and usually it can be taken care of with some sort of free thing or credit or anything like that, but that isn't always good enough. Angry customers want the people who made the mistake reprimanded, fired even, in order to try and quench their insatiable thirst for revenge, or whatever.
Although a family celebrating their daughter's birthday could and maybe should feel entitled to a perfect night, there's no reason to talk down to your server, or a customer service representative. So when you go crazy in the lobby of a business or at your table, and think that the angrier you look, the more likely the employee is to get fired, I can tell you from seeing it happen first hand...nothing actually happens. You're going to get a very sincere apology from anyone involved who feels compelled to console you, maybe a discount on your next purchase, and as soon as you walk out of the door, everyone might just turn to each other with relief that the upset customer is done yelling at everyone. They're going to establish that a mistake might have been made just like they do all the rest of the time, and get right on with the rest of the day.
Think about this next time you're compelled to let out your grievance all at once with fire coming out of your mouth, it isn't that big of a deal. We're sorry the pizza didn't get to you in 30 minutes or less, dude. Pizza is pretty popular, and a lot of people ordered tonight, your total will be $19.95.
