I wrote this DEC 2007, to the superintendent of our school district at that time, concerning a new TD that persistently sided with hostile parents, and regardless of the bus drivers performing adequately to help keep kids safe. May be of use to others in similar situations... Customer is always right fallacy. This fallacy seems to have been enhanced by our current TD to include outright siding with the parent or childs version of what happened on the bus and demanding the bus driver prove his or her position is the correct version. School bus industry research has conclusively shown that virtually 100-percent of the time the bus drivers version is more accurate than the childs or parents version when carefully analyzing an event on the bus video. My experience over the years has brought about a conclusion that more than a few complaining parents of unruly children riding our school buses were shopping for a fight rather than helping the bus driver keep kids safe on the buses. The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s Department Store in London in 1909, and was typically used by businesses to: Convince customers that they will get good service at this company Convince employees to give customers good service In “Losing My Virginity“, Richard Branson outlined his philosophy of taking care of his employees first, so they would take care of his customers. In his book he writes, More businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service. Here are the top five reasons, why “The customer is always right” is wrong: 1 - It makes employees unhappy 2 - It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage 3 - Some customers are bad for business 4 - It results in worse customer service 5 - Some customers are just plain wrong CEO Hal Rosenbluth, Rosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency, wrote an excellent book about their approach called, Put The Customer Second - Put your people first and watch’em kick butt. Rosenbluth argues in kind with Branson that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because: They care more about other people, including customers They have more energy They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with They are more motivated On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that: Employees are not valued That treating employees fairly is not important That employees have no right to respect from customers That employees have to put up with everything from customers When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible. The best customers can hope for is fake good service - courteous on the surface only. About the author Alexander Kjerulf speaks and consults on happiness at work all over the world for companies like IBM, PriceWaterhouse, Coopers and DaimlerChrysler. Click here to learn more or to book Alex. Book Source Link positivesharing/happyhouris9to5/ This school districts transportation department can go from worst to first in my opinion, but accomplishing that magnificence requires much more than slogans, wishful thinking, and lip service. It requires thinking first, then doing the work first that the greatest do to accomplish that end and win. “Happy companies will win. Happy companies will grow and happy companies will innovate. The company of the future is—happy.” ~ Lars Kolind, Chairman of Grundfos
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 00:02:13 +0000
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