We’ve all heard this saying before. “The customer is always right”. But is it true?
In short, no. The customer is not always right. No one is ALWAYS right (except my wife, just in case she’s reading this article). But there is a right way to tell a valued client, who is spending his or her hard-earned money on your services, that they are wrong.
The best way that I have found to disagree with a client is to say nothing. At first. Let them talk, and let them vent. Let them explain their rationale and why they believe what they believe. Don’t interrupt or argue with them, even if you know and can prove that what they are saying is wrong. When they’re finished, you can address each of their points with facts and well-honed opinions. But do it without emotion, and without condescension. You can prove your point and show them the error in their ways, but always in a respectful manner. And always for the betterment of the partnership.
To be clear, there are a few things I won’t put up with from clients. Verbal abuse is one of them. I have had to reprimand several clients over the years for this, and with one exception (a real gem of a human being) they all apologized and never did it again. But I never allowed it to go unchallenged, and nor should you. We all have the right to be treated with respect.
I have also had to fire clients, because they simply would not agree to let us do the job they hired us to do. These are meddlers and armchair marketing quarterbacks, and when you have a client like that, it never works out. As a business owner, you always have to be prepared to walk away from a bad deal, and if a client won’t let you do your job, then that qualifies as a bad deal. But fortunately, instances like this have been very rare.
The bottom line is that marketing is a service-based business, and your clients are the lifeblood of that business. We don’t sell products. We sell expertise, research, business acumen, and a sincere commitment to customer service. The customer isn’t always right, but just by virtue of being the customer, they do have the right to express their opinion (respectfully, of course).
