Customers and Righteousness

Background Problems Some Quick Overall Thoughts Why Today As a quick “programming note,” this post goes out late, not because it came together at the last minute—in fact, as I tried to figure out if I had anything to post, I stumbled across this old draft already written1 that indirectly talked about other things that I’ve had on my mind—but because the Nor’Easter has apparently knocked out Internet everywhere, somehow, despite all the alleged preparations they’ve announced over the past week. Anyway, when the old comment surfaced, it occurred to me that I actually did want to tease out the old wisdom that “the customer is always right.” Anybody who has dealt with an actual, live customer knows that this rarely holds true, because “right” requires understanding business priorities and constraints. However, I’d add a bit more nuance. Background The axiom comes primarily from retail, and notably does not actually refer to imagining customers as some sort of omniscient creatures whose…