There are some slogans and sayings we learn at a very young age that frankly aren’t completely true. Every adult has heard a child say something like, “You can’t make me. It’s a free country.” In business one of these not-quite-true adages is, “The customer is always right.”

Of course, the idea behind this teaching is that you should relate to all customers as if they are right. The rub comes when you run into a customer who is obviously wrong. And, then what do you do? Especially when you can’t find a solution to make the situation “right.”

Let me give a quick disclaimer before we go further: Occasionally there are customers who you will want to “fire.” Fortunately, there aren’t many and I’ll briefly discuss how to handle them in a moment. But let’s start at the beginning of the process.

In every customer interaction, you want to keep your desired end result in mind. That result is that the next time the customer needs whatever it is that you sell, they will come back to you. In other words, finish strong.

So when you sense that you have a problem, disagreement, or complaint, focus on that end result. Regardless of who’s at fault, when the interaction is over you want to leave the door open so the customer will feel comfortable coming back in. This is obvious if you’ve made a mistake and are righting the wrong. And if your customer happens to be wrong, that could be even more important. The key to finishing strong is to let the customer be wrong with dignity and respect.

I was once standing at the check-in counter of a major hotel and they couldn’t find my reservation. I knew I was in the right city. I knew the name over the door was the hotel where I had made my reservation. After a bit of research, we discovered that my reservation was for their “sister” hotel just a few blocks away. They were right; I was wrong. But they didn’t make me feel bad. They could have simply told me to take a cab to the other hotel, but instead, they put me under the care of a friendly and helpful bellhop who drove me in the hotel’s van to the correct hotel.

What was their desired end result? It could have been to inform me of my error and give me rudimentary directions to the right hotel, but it wasn’t. The employees wanted to be sure I would be a returning customer, and one who would recommend their hotel to others.

Mission accomplished....