The customer is always right in matters of taste

The idea of “the customer is always right” goes back to the early 1900’s. Among others who coined the phrase was hotelier Cesar Ritz, who said “ If a diner complains about a dish or the wine, immediately remove it and replace it, no questions asked.”

It’s not necessarily a bad policy, but can have a big downside when people realize they can take advantage of it. Or, perhaps they’re just going a bit nuts like when William Foster said it in the classic movie “Falling Down”:

The solution is to reframe the idea entirely by adding that little bit to the end — “ …in matters of taste “.

In matters of taste

From a marketing perspective, the customer is never wrong. If you offer two colors of a product, your opinion on which color is better doesn’t matter much — the “better” color is the one that people purchase more frequently.

Or if you work in a hair salon and a client wants their hair cut in a way that seems odd to you, it doesn’t matter. They’re the ones paying, and their desire is what…