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Back in 1909 Harry Selfridge coined the phrase “The Customer is Always Right”. Since then it is heralded by thousands of customer service reps and business owners alike, and for good reason: customers ultimately pay the bills and pay the salaries. Without customers, there IS no business!

If you’re dealing with the general public there will come a time when you will question that old adage and you will have to decide if you want the future business of that customer or not. . Most customers are fair and reasonable and they are willing to accept that sometimes things can go wrong.

But just as there are some customers who won’t be satisfied, no matter what, so too there are some businesses who have no interest in retaining the custom of any of their customers, and treat them all like dirt.

Regardless, a grumpy customer can change the colour of anyone’s day.

At the end of 2001 on a mountain in North Vietnam I was sitting with my tour guide, a 15 year old Hill Tribe girl, waiting for the rest of our party. One of the other tourists had upset her and she told me that some days some people were just so horrible to her that she felt like tossing the job in.

This job had enabled her to build a new house for her family. In this part of the world water powered generators throughout the rice paddies generate enough to power a single light bulb. There are two rooms in her mud brick house, compressed dirt floor, and ill fitting wooden shutters on tiny windows and just outside the door is the family pig. The only running water is from the Da River.

One or two people out of 10 she said were horrible to her and for that she was willing to give up a job that had provided the family with so much.

“Well then,” I replied, “you should concentrate on the other 8 or 9 people who are nice to you”.

Ten years has passed since that day and the very lesson I had been struggling to put into practise prior to that moment was brought home to me in a powerful and unforgettable way.