In 1736, Benjamin Franklin printed a line in Poor Richard that every host already knew: “Fish and Visitors stink in 3 days.” That is a host talking, and the visitor never gets a vote. Businesses sit in the host’s seat every time they call the person who pays them a “guest”. The customer is always right, and the word you use for that person shows whether your people believe it.
“Guest” sounds gracious, but it is a watered-down euphemism for customer. So are “student”, “patient”, “tenant”, “member”, “user”, and (worst of all) “account”. Someone in the business chose each of those words, but it was never the customer. Each one changes how your people treat the person whose money keeps the doors open.
What the word does to a team
The word you use for the person who pays your bills sets your people’s posture before anyone says a thing.
Start with “guest”. A “guest” is in our space. We own it; the “guest” is in the way, and we can’t wait for them to leave. Nobody says that out loud, but it shows up in how long a request sits or in who gets handed the complaints.
The other words work the same way.
- Call someone a “student,” and the instructor’s posture becomes I’m right, you’re wrong, do as I say, and I don’t have to change my style to meet your needs.
- A “patient” is told to have patience, because the doctor always knows best and can be as late as he wants.
- A “tenant” is on my property; I own it, I’m collecting rent, and the rules are for me, not you.
- A “member” can be thrown out if we don’t like how they act.
- “Users” are always wrong. Anyone who has touched a computer has heard “user error”.
- And an “account” is not even a person.
Each of those labels hands the authority to the business and tells the person paying to adapt.
What “student” did to me…
I experienced this from the receiving end at the tender age of 17.
I was straight out of a strict Catholic high school where you did not question the person at the front of the room. My parents gave me flying lessons as a graduation present, so I was a student again, and I acted like one. My instructor’s visa was expiring, and he kept asking me to help him with it instead of teaching me to fly. I was 17. I could not do anything about a visa.
Meanwhile, there were concepts I did not understand that he considered obvious, and he could not or would not explain them another way. I never pushed back. Students don’t. Between the word and my schooling, I took it for granted that if I was not getting it, the problem was me.
Years later, I saw it harden into math in the casino industry. We called customers “guests,” and all of the statistical analysis was based on a generic three-day trip. The model saw a visit with an end date.
I recognized it… Different word, same posture.
The customer is always right
I hold to the old rule, and I do not water it down. The customer is always right.
I do not mean every request is correct. A patient who asks his doctor for morphine may not be right about the morphine. He is still expressing a need, and the business has to understand that need and find ways to meet it. The doctor who refuses and moves on has ignored the need. The one who treats the request as information about the need is working for the customer.
That is the difference the word makes.
What changes when the word is “customer”?
Using any of the substitute words, the business can decide the person is wrong and stop there. When we use “customer”, it cannot, because that person is paying the bills. Always right means the business starts from the customer’s need and not from its own convenience.
Say “customer” and the room changes, starting with who owns the problem. A customer’s problem belongs to whoever took the customer’s money. A guest’s problem belongs to whoever is standing closest, and a student’s belongs to the student.
Once a problem has an owner, it moves faster. Nobody is comfortable leaving a paying customer waiting, while a guest is already a temporary inconvenience and waiting is easier to live with. The talk in the room changes with it. With a guest, the question is why this person is being difficult. With a customer, the question is what do they need or want and what does it take for us to deliver (and get paid).
Listen for the word
Sit in your next three meetings and write down what your people call the person who pays. If the word is anything other than customer, it is already shaping how that person gets treated. Is the treatment what was intended when the word was chosen, or do you need to go back to basics and treat your guests, students, patients, tenants, members, users, and accounts like paying customers?
If you want a fractional COO/CoS/CIO to listen to how your teams talk about the people who pay you, and to tell you what it is costing, write to SRoberts@SCRoberts.com or go to www.SCRoberts.com.
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