No.
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Just kidding. Sort of. It really depends on how you interpret the old adage. The reality is that we’ve all had customers who were–most definitely–not right in a complaint or criticism. There are three ways to deal with such a situation: 1) give in, 2) don’t “give in”, but rather figure out what the real problem is, or 3) prevent those kinds of problems to the best of your ability.
It’s an extremely rare situation where Genesis has to “give in” and acknowledge that we somehow dropped the ball. It has happened, but it is rare, and our clients appreciate that rarity so much that we don’t get taken to the woodshed when it happens. Often, an unreasonable customer is not really complaining about what they’re complaining about. Maybe they’ve had a bad day. Maybe they’re under a lot of pressure and have a tight deadline. Usually, an attentive ear and a polite conversation can diffuse the situation–and often turn out not to really be “situations” at all.
But we at Genesis always prefer option #3: prevent the problem from happening in the first place.
We visualize for a living. Not all of our clients are gifted in that area. It is incumbent upon us to take them on a comfortable journey that delivers them to the right destination–and help them know along the way just where that journey will lead. This begins on a conceptual level and is soon followed by scripts/copywriting and perhaps storyboards that will convey the idea in its fruition. Each step of the way, our clients have the opportunity to review, modify, and approve where we are before we move to the next step. Because our process is so deliberative, our missteps are rare–extremely rare, and that reliability ensures that we are an asset to our clients. What a relief it is for them to work with people who they KNOW have their back, know how to execute well, and want to see them succeed. We don’t ever want to be one of our client’s headaches.
And that goes back to one of the most important philosophies in life and in business: do what you say you’re going to do. It’s amazing just how far that will carry you in this world. If you want to make yourself valuable to someone, teach them to rely on you, then be reliable.
So, I’ll modify the old adage. Is the customer always right? No. But our customers can always rely on us to do right by them. As we approach year number 30, that seems to be working out pretty well.
