By Tony Huppert, CEO of Team Oil Inc.
With all the changes in retail business and society, it gets more challenging to accept the old saying, “the customer is always right.”
When a customer fills their diesel trucks tank with gasoline, or hooks a water hose, instead of an air hose, and fills the tire with water, or drives into the touchless carwash with their windows open and blames you because you didn’t have a sign telling them to roll up their windows, it gets challenging.
The list goes on and on. Credit cards being stuck in the ATM because a customer shoved his credit card up the receipt dispenser slot, or dents in a customer’s car bumper because he hit your bollards surrounding your store are just a few more of the everyday mind boggling turns of events that are common to the convenience store business.
I often wonder if ‘the customer is always right’ will go by the way side of the dial phone and the eight track player. In my 40 plus years of business experience, I witness new questions to the statement more every day.
I do not want any misunderstanding. I do understand things happen. I just hate being blamed for them while the experts in customer service emphasize, “The Customer is Always Right.” But, as far as the customer being wrong, that should be kept to yourself or for employee training purposes ‘ONLY.’
Tony Huppert is a Wisconsin businessman of 40 years and CEO of Team Oil Inc., the family-owned and operated Team Oil Travel Center, and Subway in Spring Valley, Wis.