Is the customer always right??????

[Black Bart]

You can not win either way.
The reason I have my JD 430 is I bought it years ago and did custom garden tilling with it.
I had this old woman call me and said she wanted her garden tilled,, I said it has been raining for the past 2 days it is too wet.

She replied I have all my seeds I want to make garden today.

I told her I would come over to her house and check it. When I turned over a shovel full it was just a big chuck of mud.

I explained to her that it would just till up into round mud balls and then dry hard as hell and her garden would be a mess.

NO she wanted it tilled the sun was shining and she was going to make garden.
I went home loaded the tractor and tiller took it to her place and tilled and it worked up into mud balls.

I made and extra pass on it but it didn't help much the hard balls just rolled through the tiller.

When I went to the house and told her I was done she came out and looked at it and said last year you did me a lot better job.

I said yes but last year you did not force me to mud it in.

She never called me again she told her neighbors that I ruined her garden.

 

[Jetblast]

A man has got to pick his battles. I'd probably skip this one and just indulge her silliness. Some people like the look of a scalped unhealthy lawn. My next door neighbor certainly is one of them.

IMO the customer is always right, except when they're wrong. Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher spoke well about that in his book. Southwest will "fire" PITA customers in order to protect employee morale, and that's part of why they have one of the most content workforces out there.

 

[LandN]

Ok here it goes, I had a lady call me and ask me to drop my mower a few notches down. Well here's the thing her lawn looks amazing since I've been cutting it this year. Ive done my research and found that weeds don't like taller grass and etc. So I tried to explain all this to her and I couldn't get anywhere with her. I even told her that the grass would turn brown instead of the dark green like she has now. She then went on to demand that in order to run a business I need to always do exactly what the customer wants even if its not in the best interest for the lawn. I told her I didn't agree with this statement. What do you guys think of this situation and how would you handle this.

MY answer to the thread title would be ...NO.,the customer is NOT always right.Everyone is a customer somewhere sometime. Who and how many people can know everything about everything.That phrase was created long ago to lure people(customers) into a business with the notion that the service was better than the competition. A marketing strategy that lots of business use in one form or another.Through time,SOME people(customers) have the idea that they can go into certain business and dictate business policy to suit their own liking.... Now the GRAY AREA. SOME businesses can negotiate business policy to SOME customers and get away with it under certain conditions.In a case of lawn cutting, and a client that chooses to upset the condition of the lawn by cutting at a lower level, i would do it after she signed a paper that relieves the cutter of any responsibility of the potential end result. Or if you really KNOW the person in question maybe a verbal will do.

 

[twall]

My dad was a butcher with his own shop for years and years. If you run a business, you give the customer what he/she wants, even if you know better. You're damned either way, so it's best to have the rep of doing what the customer tells you, than having the rep of doing whatever your know-it-all butt feels is right (which is the rep you'll get if you just say 'I know better', and do it your way).

Whether you like it or not, or agree with it or not, the customer is your boss. If you're going to be insubordinate, then go ahead and do it. But, you do not own the lawn. You are paid to care for the lawn the way your BOSS wants it cared for. If that isn't in your rulebook, then you might want to find a different job.

You said you pleaded your case with her, and it didn't make a dent. So, your boss has spoken. If you didn't want her as a boss, you shouldn't have agreed to do her lawn. This is a different case from the lady with the rotten sewer. You knew what you were in for, with her being in law and all, so what can anyone in this forum do to help you?

I'm sure you won't agree with those statements, either - but that's just my 2 cents. You are fighting city hall here, and LMF isn't going to make her any nicer, or give you a silver bullet to fix it. Sorry. :frown:

In this kind of situation, NOTHING you do will be right. I think you already know that. I suppose you're just venting.

 

[Black Bart]

My dad was a butcher with his own shop for years and years. If you run a business, you give the customer what he/she wants, even if you know better. You're damned either way, so it's best to have the rep of doing what the customer tells you, than having the rep of doing whatever your know-it-all butt feels is right (which is the rep you'll get if you just say 'I know better', and do it your way).

Whether you like it or not, or agree with it or not, the customer is your boss. If you're going to be insubordinate, then go ahead and do it. But, you do not own the lawn. You are paid to care for the lawn the way your BOSS wants it cared for. If that isn't in your rulebook, then you might want to find a different job.

You said you pleaded your case with her, and it didn't make a dent. So, your boss has spoken. If you didn't want her as a boss, you shouldn't have agreed to do her lawn. This is a different case from the lady with the rotten sewer. You knew what you were in for, with her being in law and all, so what can anyone in this forum do to help you?

I'm sure you won't agree with those statements, either - but that's just my 2 cents. You are fighting city hall here, and LMF isn't going to make her any nicer, or give you a silver bullet to fix it. Sorry. :frown:

In this kind of situation, NOTHING you do will be right. I think you already know that. I suppose you're just venting.

I agree with Twall

If you run a business

Rule #1 The customer is always right
Rule #2 When the customer is wrong refer to rule #1

6 months ago I changed barbers and first time their I told him how I wanted it cut.

I get a GI cut and every time I go back he cuts it a little longer.
I don't know if he wants it longer because he likes it or he wants me to come back more often so he makes more money.
I suspect the latter of the two but yesterday I got a hair cut and I told him he was cutting my hair too long and I wanted it cut shorter.

He said no problem and he cut it like I wanted.
If he had not cut it like I want he would have never seen me again.

 

[JDgreen]

You can not win either way.
The reason I have my JD 430 is I bought it years ago and did custom garden tilling with it.
I had this old woman call me and said she wanted her garden tilled,, I said it has been raining for the past 2 days it is too wet.

She replied I have all my seeds I want to make garden today.

I told her I would come over to her house and check it. When I turned over a shovel full it was just a big chuck of mud.

I explained to her that it would just till up into round mud balls and then dry hard as hell and her garden would be a mess.

NO she wanted it tilled the sun was shining and she was going to make garden.
I went home loaded the tractor and tiller took it to her place and tilled and it worked up into mud balls.

I made and extra pass on it but it didn't help much the hard balls just rolled through the tiller.

When I went to the house and told her I was done she came out and looked at it and said last year you did me a lot better job.

I said yes but last year you did not force me to mud it in.

She never called me again she told her neighbors that I ruined her garden.

What a witch...how can you ruin dirt....:confused2:

That woman must be related to the neighbor I had 25 years ago, it was nearing Halloween and my girlfriend and I were sitting in my back yard, the lady next door had a bunch of standing dead constalks in her garden, well a bunch of kids about 10 years old kept crawling on the ground to her cornstalks and when they got close enough they would jump to their feet and grab a cornstalk and then run away, after about a dozen of them were stolen she saw them and came out screaming at them like they were stealing watermelons. One of the funniest things I ever saw. :laughing:

 

[LawnBoy420]

My wife knows all about the settings and how to cut cause she reads all my lawn care books I have laying around the house. She knows how I feel about her sister but nothing is worth listening to her ungrateful sisters mouth if I chose to walk away. I treat every yard like its my own and do what's best for the lawns. This has paid off for me and my business. This is the reason I don't want to scalp it. Makes me look bad but this is what she wants

Yea that's a tough situation. I would drop it just one notch & if you scalp it, then it's her problem

 

[Oddball]

Sometimes the best business decision is to tell a PITA customer that due to a difference of opinion, work ethic, whatever, that its best if they find someone else to do the job. SIL or not, I'd tell her to find someone else to do the yard. I agree it will make you look bad when her lawn dies off or gets weedy because you scalp it and it sounds like she's not the type to step up and tell the neighbors its her fault and you warned her not to do it. If she wants to start any family drama just tell her to shut the heck up. Sounds like your wife knows sis is a PITA and I bet she'd understand if you did. If you can't tell family to F-off who can you tell?

 

[polly]

The customer is not always right. when there wrong there wrong. In this case do what she asks and quit talking about it. Time will go by and the sun will come up tomorrow.--polly

 

[originalswampfox]

This is a loose paraphrase from a quote Winston Churchill made about the US. "The customer(US) will always do what is right, after they have tried everything else." I know this doesn't help you, but a little laugh can't hurt. Hope it works out ok.