Stew Leonard and the Perfect Eggnog

Stew Leonard credits his ultimate success to a change in attitude he made shortly after his first store opened.

He was standing at the store’s entrance when a customer came up and said in an angry voice, “This eggnog is sour.” Stew took the half-gallon container, opened it, and took a taste. He then looked the customer in the eye and said, “You’re wrong; it’s perfect.” And to prove that he was right, he added, “We sold over three hundred half-gallons of eggnog this week, and you’re the only one who complained.” The angry customer demanded her money back and said, “I’m never coming back to this store again!”

That evening, Stew reflected on the incident and came to the conclusion that he had made two huge mistakes. First, he had not listened to the customer, and second, he had humiliated her by saying that three hundred other customers had not complained. He decided that the success of his small store would depend on good customer service that would generate repeat business.

He decided to adopt two basic store policies, which have been chiseled into a three-ton rock next to the front door of the store:

Rule 1: THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!
Rule 2: IF THE CUSTOMER IS EVER WRONG, REREAD RULE 1.

Source: Leonard, S. (1988, June 27). Love your customer. Newsweek quoted in L. Ukens, 101 Ways to Improve Customer Service (full PDF of the book currently available here)