Is There an Amount of Money a Customer Can Spend That Buys Them the Right to Disrespect Your Employees?

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I wish I could say this with more anger than I can muster here:

Why do some businesses interpret “the customer is always right” and “put the customer first” to mean there should be no limits to what customers are allowed to get away with?

Especially with employees.

Because in their determination to keep customers happy, businesses are willing to sacrifice the dignity of their employees to people whose bad behavior they should be checking, not rewarding.

Customer-focused businesses spend years teaching employees how to behave around customers. There are entire training programmes around it. Be courteous. Be patient. Listen. Don't raise your voice. Don't take it personally. De-escalate.

But what happens when the customer isn't courteous? When they aren’t patient or they raise their voice? What about when they insult an employee or talk down at them?

What does the business do then?

Because customers learn very quickly what a business will tolerate.

If I can insult your employee and your first response is to apologize to me or I make an accusation and you immediately summon your employee to explain themselves in front of me, I have learnt something.

If every time I become difficult you offer me a discount, a voucher, or some other form of appeasement, I have learnt that bad behavior has purchasing power in your business.

Which is why every business should be able to answer an equally important question:

How does your business allow customers to treat your employees?

Because we forget something especially important:

The way you treat your employees is how your customers learn to treat them.

Taking a customer's complaint seriously does not require immediately assuming your employee is wrong.

And protecting the dignity of your staff doesn't mean blindly taking their side either. It means establishing what happened before deciding who is wrong.

Too many times, I’ve seen managers berate employees in the presence of customers.

Why?

If an employee has done something wrong, correct them. But there is no reason to humiliate them in front of the customer.

Because the customer is watching too.

And when you do that, you teach them exactly where that employee stands.

Sometimes protecting your employees also means being prepared to tell a paying customer, “You cannot speak to my staff like that.”

There are customers with a sense of entitlement. Customers who feel it’s okay to intimidate staff or talk down at them because they know that if they make enough noise, somebody will eventually give them what they want just to make them go away.

But is there an amount of money a customer can spend that buys them the right to disrespect your employees?

If the answer is no, then managers need to behave like it.

You may lose that customer.

So be it.