The Customer Is Always Right… Even When They Are Wrong?

Where the rule came from, what research tells us it can cost a business, and the question every business owner needs to answer.

Imagine it is a busy Saturday afternoon in your shop. Customers are coming in and going out. Your staff are trying to attend to everyone, and there is a queue at the counter.

Then one customer walks up with an item, demands a full refund and starts raising her voice. Other customers are watching. Your staff member tries to explain the situation, but the customer will not listen.

She asks to see the manager.

The manager arrives, listens for a moment and says those familiar words:

“Just give her the money. The customer is always right.”

The refund is paid. The customer leaves.

But what about the employee who was shouted at? What about the other customers who witnessed the scene? And what happens when the next customer realises that making enough noise is the easiest way to get what they want?

Was the manager right to approve the refund?

Hold that thought. We will return to this scene.

Where did the rule come from?

Many people treat “the customer is always right” as if it has been a business rule since the beginning of time. It has not.

One of the earliest known references appeared in a 1905 Boston Globe article discussing Chicago retailer Marshall Field. In 1908, Swiss hotelier César Ritz was associated with the French expression, “the customer is never wrong.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge is often credited with popularising the phrase, but there is no solid evidence that he invented it. Its exact origin remains uncertain.

What we do know is why the idea became popular.

Businesses wanted customers to feel heard, respected and confident that they would not be cheated. Ritz, for instance, instructed his staff to replace a dish or wine when a diner complained, without first turning the matter into an argument.

The intention was to take complaints seriously and protect the customer’s trust.

Somewhere along the line, however, a useful customer service principle began to be treated as an instruction to agree with customers at all costs.

And that is where the problem begins.

When keeping a customer starts costing you your staff

Let us bring this closer to home.

Think about the sales attendant who is insulted because a product is out of stock. The customer who speaks to a cashier as if she has no sense. The restaurant worker who is blamed for a delay she did not cause. Or the staff member who follows company policy, only for the manager to overturn the decision because a customer has complained loudly enough.

These situations are familiar in many service environments. But how much attention do businesses pay to what happens to their employees afterwards?

Research has some important things to say about this.

A review of 72 studies involving 20,701 employees linked abusive and rude customer behaviour to emotional exhaustion, thoughts of quitting and poorer customer service performance. Another analysis, covering 232 samples and nearly 77,000 employees, also found that customer mistreatment significantly affected employees’ work outcomes.

In other words, how customers treat your staff can affect how your staff feel, how they work and whether they want to stay.

The cost does not always appear at the counter. Sometimes, it appears later when a good employee decides they have had enough.

One study examined retail and restaurant workers in the Philippines, alongside call centre employees in Canada. The researchers highlighted how high employee turnover can be in customer service, with annual rates in some settings ranging from 26% to 200%.

Consider what that means for a business. When experienced staff leave, the business must recruit, train and settle new people into their roles. Meanwhile, service consistency may suffer, and the remaining team may have to carry more of the workload.

A 2026 US study also examined how the familiar customer service mantra may contribute to customer entitlement and make rude behaviour easier to justify. The researchers argued that businesses need to make it clear that abusive conduct will not be tolerated.

There is another important finding worth noting: employees who felt supported and listened to by their supervisors were significantly protected from some of the effects of difficult customer behaviour.

That matters because the solution is not simply to tell staff to develop a thick skin.

Sometimes, the real question is not how well your employees can tolerate difficult customers. It is whether your business has given them the support and authority to handle those customers properly.

What about African businesses?

We looked for African data specifically examining how customer mistreatment affects employee wellbeing and staff turnover. We did not find figures we could confidently rely on for this article.

The studies discussed here were conducted in other countries. Their findings are useful, but we should not automatically assume that the numbers apply directly to Nigerian or other African businesses.

That distinction matters.

Our markets, working conditions, customer expectations and management practices may differ. We need more local research to understand the scale of the problem in our own business environments.

For Nigerian business owners, this presents an opportunity to start asking better questions and paying closer attention to what their own records and employees are telling them.

How often do customer complaints involve abusive behaviour? How many employees have left after repeated difficult encounters? And what do staff say when they feel safe enough to speak honestly?

These are not questions to ask only when a business is already struggling to retain people.

So, what should a business owner do?

At Don Quester Consulting, we believe the answer is not to stop putting customers first. It is to understand what putting customers first should actually mean.

The following are our professional recommendations, informed by the research discussed above.

1. Listen to the customer, but do not abandon common sense.

Every complaint deserves to be heard. But listening does not mean accepting every claim without checking the facts.

A customer may have a genuine complaint. Another may have misunderstood the policy. Someone else may simply be trying to get an outcome they are not entitled to.

Your staff need to know how to distinguish between these situations and respond fairly.

2. Stop treating every complaint as an isolated incident.

If one customer complains about a product, investigate it. If several customers keep raising the same issue, look beyond the individual complaints.

Is the product faulty? Is your delivery process unreliable? Are staff giving conflicting information? Is a policy creating unnecessary frustration?

A complaint can be uncomfortable to receive, but it can also reveal something your business needs to fix.

3. Give your staff clear boundaries.

An employee standing in front of an angry customer should not have to guess what they are allowed to do.

Can they approve a refund? When must they call a supervisor? What should they do when a customer becomes verbally abusive?

These decisions should not depend entirely on who is on duty or how loudly the customer complains.

Clear service standards and decision-making limits help staff respond confidently while protecting the business from inconsistent decisions.

4. Managers must support their people, not just their customers.

Supporting an employee does not mean assuming the employee is always right. It means listening to both sides, checking what happened and making a fair decision.

If the employee made a mistake, correct it. If the employee followed the rules and the customer crossed a line, do not throw your staff member under the bus just to end the confrontation.

Your team is watching how you handle these moments. Over time, your actions help determine whether people feel safe taking responsibility or learn to avoid it.

5. Take employee feedback seriously.

Your staff interact with customers every day. They often see recurring complaints, unreasonable demands and weaknesses in your processes before management does.

Create a way for them to report these experiences and suggest improvements without fear of being blamed.

You may discover that what looks like a staff attitude problem is actually a training gap, an unclear policy or a management decision that needs to change.

Let us return to that Saturday afternoon.

The customer is still standing at the counter, demanding a refund.

This time, the employee listens without interrupting. She checks the receipt, examines the item and explains the applicable refund policy. She offers the solution she is authorised to provide.

The customer is unhappy and begins to raise her voice.

The employee remains calm and explains that she is willing to help, but the conversation must remain respectful. The manager steps in, reviews the situation and supports a fair decision.

The customer may leave satisfied. She may leave unhappy. There is no guarantee that every interaction will end perfectly.

But the business has done something important: it has taken the complaint seriously without treating its employee's dignity as an acceptable price to pay.

Good customer service is not about winning every argument or granting every demand. It is about handling people fairly, solving genuine problems and protecting the standards of your business.

Five questions every business owner should answer

Before you repeat the words “the customer is always right,” ask yourself:

1. Does every frontline employee know which customer complaints they can resolve without waiting for a manager?

2. Do your staff know what to do when a customer becomes verbally abusive?

3. When did you last support an employee who had handled a difficult customer according to company policy?

4. Do you examine complaints for recurring problems, or do you simply resolve each one and move on?

5. When an employee resigns, do you investigate whether repeated difficult customer encounters or a lack of management support contributed to the decision?

You do not need a consultant in the room to begin answering these questions.

But answer them honestly.

Your responses may reveal whether your business has a customer service system that works or whether your staff are simply expected to manage difficult situations as best they can.

Where Don Quester Consulting stands

Our work is centred on making African businesses sustainable and youths employable. We believe these two goals are connected.

A business cannot build a strong customer experience on the back of an unsupported workforce. Neither can it retain good employees by ignoring legitimate customer complaints.

Both sides matter.

At Don Quester Consulting, we help businesses strengthen service standards, clarify what frontline employees can decide, equip managers to lead more effectively and develop staff skills for handling difficult customer interactions.

The goal is not to encourage staff to argue with customers. It is to help businesses create a working environment where employees can serve customers professionally, managers can make fair decisions, and complaints become opportunities to improve.

If you run a business, manage a team or are responsible for customer service, this is a conversation worth having.

Subscribe to the Don Quester blog so you do not miss our next article, which examines what happens to your training investment after the workshop ends.

And let us hear from you in the comments:

What is the most difficult customer situation you or your team have faced, and how was it handled?

Share your experience. Your story may help another business owner rethink how they manage customers and support their people.

Real Life Transformation starts with a conversation.

Call us on 07086764537 or email info@donquester.com.