Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Right (and Wrong) Customers
Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.
About 100 years ago, the French hotel magnate César Ritz is credited as saying, “‘Le client n’a jamais tort” (i.e., “The customer is never wrong”). What started a clever catchphrase for the international hospitality and tourism trade has evolved into a mantra that many of us utilize as we seek to make our operations more customer-focused.
Which of these statements most accurately applies to you: The customer is king. The customer is always right. The customer has the money we want so we better do what they say so we can get it.
What’s Right
Sometimes it’s not about who is right or who is wrong--sometimes it may just be asking what’s wrong. Questioning a customer about what they want early enough in a delivery process and giving it to them is better than waiting to find out when something is developed improperly or just not working for them. It should be a no-brainer, but many of us forget to ask the basics.
Then again, we have circumstances where our clients have problems with our products or want them enhanced in some way. To what degree are we willing to accommodate change? Admittedly, most of us work in a business segment that is trying to provide applications and services without exposing ourselves financially or resource-wise to customer-heavy personalization options. It’s about …
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Maybe the dingo ate your baby. - Elaine Benes |