Why Robert Irvine Doesn't Believe In 'The Customer's Always Right'
If you've ever worked in any type of customer service role, you've probably had a boss, manager, or even coworker share the golden rule of "the customer is always right." According to Phrases, the slogan dates back to the early 20th century and was generally used to imply that an establishment should care so much about its customers, that employees will act as if the customer is in the right, even if they're not. Though the saying has been around for over 100 years, some simply don't agree with it, including celebrity chef and TV host Robert Irvine.
On March 23, an Irvine fan took to Twitter to ask about his views on customers sending food back to the kitchen. The fan described a scenario in which they believed their mother had been treated unfairly in a restaurant. According to the Twitter user, the waitress told the family "Tell your mom she's wrong and we can't get her another dish, what is this a taste testing?" Irvine weighed in on the situation.
Many agree that the customer is not always right
Apparently, the host of Restaurant: Impossible doesn't have a problem if customers return food to the kitchen, per the chef's tweet. However, he wants to know why they're returning the dish. "Did the server not describe correctly, did they not like it, etc," Irvine said in the tweet. In his view, the customer would then get a new dish, not a re-cooked one.
While this seemingly answered the original poster's question, Irvine used the tweet to share one final thought, stating "I also don't believe the customer is always right lol," he wrote, following up that some people will take advantage. In a separate tweet, the chef expanded on this reasoning saying, "I have had many a bad day with customers that play the system and games with restaurants and store owners." Many of the platform's users replied to the tweet in agreement with this sentiment.
As one Twitter user wrote, "I work in a daquari bar, frozen drinks, a few months ago a woman came in ordered a daquari then complain it was "to cold", customer is not always right."