Is the customer always right?

"The customer may be right, but is she in charge?" That's what Thomas A. Stewart asks in a strategy column today. He says marketers have three options: (1) to resist what customers want, (2) to appease customers and (3) to indulge customers (while making a profit, of course). In other words, he believes that the customer may be right, but she also may be too costly to serve.

Yet marketing simply can't succeed without good customer service. Companies that satisfy customers spend less to keep them and continue selling to them. Customers that are delighted by a firm's service will refer friends, family and colleagues.

So the question really is: Is the customer right for us? A firm can't be all things to all customers. Best Buy, the US-based electronics retailer that recently entered the UK market, analysed its customer base several years ago and discovered that some customers were much too expensive to serve (because they were bargain-hunters or returned purchases more often than other customers, for instance). As a result, Best Buy determined to target its "angel" customers and operate its stores accordingly, providing the best service to the best customers. The "angel" customers are always right.