The Customer Is Not Always Right

Posted by Steven Wagenheim on September 09, 2010 in General

This is an article that is not going to go down well with some folks, especially if they’re customers and live by the saying, “The customer is always right.” Take my word for it…the customer is not always right. I’m not going to out anybody here (that would not be cool) but I am going to give some general info that you can take however you like. I think, as a marketer, you will understand where I am coming from.

Let’s take what I am sure you are going to agree with, a simple example of a customer buying a $47 ebook on PPC advertising. The book goes over the basics of keyword research, ad creation, geo targeting and so on.

The customer, after purchasing the product, contacts the creator of the book and asks him to walk him through actually setting up an Adwords campaign. He emails him his user name, password, etc., and says, “Here’s my niche, here’s my product, here’s the sales page…set up my campaign.”

The vendor then writes back to the customer telling him that this is beyond the level of support provided for the product. The customer writes back saying, “But you said if I had any questions to ask.”

Yes, questions. Not…please setup my campaign for me. So the customer gets all annoyed, claiming that the sale of the product was misrepresented, even though nowhere in the book or on the sales page did it say, “I will setup a campaign for you.”

This, believe it or not, is a common problem among product creators. Customers, knowing that nowhere in the product did it say that the creator would do xyz, will still ask for it to be done and THEN….when it isn’t…get all bent out of shape.

Some get downright nasty.

At that point, it is time to refund the purchase and ban the customer from ever buying anymore of your products.

I can hear some of you saying, “Woa…a lifetime ban? It’s just one product.”

Do you really think that somebody like this is suddenly going to change their spots? Do you not think that this kind of behavior is going to continue because this is just the way these people are?

After you have been in this business for a while, you will begin to realize that sometimes, the customer is NOT right. Sometimes the customer is just a royal pain in the backside.

I will personally bend over backwards to help my customers because I truly want to see people succeed. And yes, I will sometimes go above and beyond what I will normally do.

But when somebody asks me to do something that could take days of my time, for a $27 ebook, that is where I have to draw the line.

If the book in question doesn’t provide them with the info they need to get the job done themselves, then ask for a refund. That’s the point of the book, so you CAN do it yourself. If I have to do it for you, the purpose of the book has been defeated.

I’m not saying don’t provide customer service. I’ll put my own up against anybody else’s in this business. But there comes a time when you have to draw the line and say enough is enough.

As you do this more and more, you’ll find that point in time on your own.

Usually sooner than later.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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