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No offense to clients (current and/or future), but this phrase is probably the bane of most business owners’ very existence. It shoudl seriously be wiped out of ht “human dictionary of common cliches.”

Now, let me explain why I say this. No, no, it’s not because I have an issue listening to clients, I swear it. I actually do have valid reasons for this line of thinking. Please hear me out.

My initial reason for hating this phrase so much is from the years I worked in retail. I wasn’t just a counter-clerk grunt either (of course I started that way, but it never took me long to move up the ranks quickly), so I got to delve into the world of upper-management more than once. I honestly believe my years in retail are one of the big reasons why I wanted to run my own business But anyway, once thing I always noticed was that when you applied that phrase you find in the title of this post, and “lived by it,” then you weren’t happy. It’s a “universe” thing I guess – one of those things where, if you believe it and do it, then you end up living it. Too many times I’ve seen where you’re living it and you end up giving everything away, and no one is happy.

So why is the customer not always right?

Because, they hired you. They hired you because they want you to provide a service for them that they cannot provide for themselves – either because they don’t want to or, more likely, they don’t know how. They know they want something, and maybe they have a really good idea on what it is they want, but the implementation and best practices in getting to that goal are not clear to them. They are on one side of the gorge, what they want is on the other, and they come to you to build that bridge for them. They hire you because you know what you’re doing.

As a customer, you hire they guy who builds houses because he knows the building codes, and the proper way to distribute load through the building, and he knows how to get electricity moving through the walls without setting the house on fire. You don’t walk onto the building site and tell the contractor that you don’t like that the wires are moving in a certain direction, or you don’t like the look of the insulation. In this case, the customer is not right.

You hire the chef to cook your food for you because he’s highly recommended, and everything you’ve tasted is divine. He has a knack for flavor, he’s an artist when it comes to the palate. But if you walk into the kitchen while he’s cooking your favorite dish, and see him placing sour cream into your sauce (in my case, my husband would have a heart attack if he saw that LOL) and tell him not to. Because your favorite dish would no longer taste the same. He wouldn’t be happy that you altered his recipe, and you wouldn’t be happy because it would taste bad. In this case, the customer is not right.

I could go on with such analogies (and even share stories of my years as a painter, and why artists tell you to absolutely not look until the project is completed – yes, we do have a valid reason for that!) but I’m hoping you (as a customer) get the point. You hire a professional because they know what they are doing, and they can do it correctly. You tell the professional what you want the end result to be, and when they ask you questions (and they ask to be sure your needs are taken into consideration, not to annoy you), answer them. But do not tell them how to do their jobs. You must work with a professional – they are a colleague, not an underling.

As the professional, I’m hoping you get the point that when a customer asks you (or in many cases, demands of you) to do something, that you find the underlying reason for why. Especially when it goes against the grain of your professionalism. If you find the client asking you to do something that makes you stop and think “Well, this one can’t go into my portfolio now…” the stop and find out why they want what thy do. As a professional, that is your responsibility. You don’t just give them what they want because of an old adage. You must work with the client to meet their needs without sacrificing your own integrity and professionalism – they are a colleague, not your boss.

I guess the point is, that phrase “the customer is always right” really, truly, gives the illusion of power to the wrong person. I’ve seen some people go nuts with stating this phrase as if it’s law – but I’m here to tell you it’s not. The phrase does nothing more than make the professional feel as if he needs to give up parts of his own belief system in how he works – sometimes even give away resources – to appease the customer’s ego. It gives the customer a “power trip,” and makes him feel as if he owns the professional. it’s not a good phrase to start a relationship with. Working with a professional is like dating someone. There will be things about the personalities that clash, sometimes. But if you really want the relationship to work, and get an end result that shines, then you need to realize that you are on an equal playing field, and on the same team, looking for the same goal. With with each other to attain that goal. Communicate openly – don’t criticize, and don’t go the other way and accept everything blindly. Get rid of this cliche – it helps no one. If you do, the end result will be more and better than anything you ever expected.