If you’ve ever worked in hospitality or retail, you’re likely familiar with the adage “the customer is always right”.
This phrase has become a thorn in the side for many public-facing workers because, truth be told, customers are not always right.
Yet, this saying is often wielded as a shield for rude and demanding behaviour. Not every customer misuses it, but ask any retail or hospitality worker, and they’ll have a litany of stories about entitled patrons insisting their method is the only way, all thanks to this infamous phrase.
However, it turns out this maxim might not be entirely accurate. It was popularised by retail magnates such as Harry Gordon Selfridge, Marshall Field, and marketing pioneer John Wanamaker.
These business tycoons adopted the slogan to ensure customers felt valued and to avoid any impression of deceit. But recently, some suggest that an essential part of the original phrase has been lost over time.
“The customer is always right in matters of taste” is a more elaborate version of the famous adage, again, often credited to retail legend Harry Gordon Selfridge, who is believed to have coined the phrase back in 1909. This expanded quote implies that customers are the best judges of their own preferences, and it’s up to businesses to respect and cater to these choices.
The extended version of this well-known slogan has been causing quite a stir online, leaving many utterly perplexed. A Reddit thread dedicated to customer service at a supermarket became heated after a story emerged about a woman reducing a cashier to tears, prompting discussions on customer behaviour and the potential influence of the original saying.
One commenter noted: “‘The customer is always right in matters of taste’ is the full saying i.e. sell them what they want, not take their bulls**t.”
Another, a bartender, shared their experience: “I’m a bartender and the couple times people have said that to me, I throw that one right back ‘in taste’ and say ‘you’re f***ing wrong. Get out’. Love it.”
Someone else weighed in, pointing out the common misinterpretation of the phrase: “The whole ‘customer is always right’ platitude is completely misconstrued… heh that rhymed. But what it was meant to mean is that if customers like a product, then buys it, they must be right… Follow the demand. It does not mean you can be sh***y and punch down like you’re so f***ing entitled.”
Amid a heated debate over customer service, one individual weighed in: “A customer can be right but that doesn’t give them the right to be rude and nasty. For example if they order a meal and something is wrong they can ask for another one or whatever but they don’t have to be nasty and cuss and throw the food at the person that’s serving it. Or whatever the situation is.”
Meanwhile, opinions continued to diverge as one commentator firmly disagreed, positing the phrase “in matters of taste” was a modern twist on an age-old saying.
They argued: “Either way the history is clear. ‘The customer is always right’ shows up well before the 1990s. In fact, it shows up in dozens of written records in the early 1900s/1910s. Meanwhile ‘the customer is always right in matters of taste’ doesn’t show up until the late 1990s. And even then, the idea that it was any older than the 1990s only comes about in the late 2010s”.
What’s your take? Do you support the traditional maxim or the updated version? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below.
