The customer is always right?

I was inspired to write an article on what the customer wanted. Basically, I just wanted to vent. My current annoyance is the response, ‘it’s what the client wanted’. This is possibly one of the most pathetic excuses in the arborist phrasebook. Weak and feeble are words that come to mind, inept is another. When someone defends their actions by blaming the client, you know it’s not good and they know it too. But of course one can’t write an article expressing one’s displeasure at the ineptitude of others; that’s the realm of social media. I had even planned to blame my lack of tolerance on COVID fatigue or old age. But then I had to question if I had tolerance to lack in the first place – can one lack something one never had?  

My issue is/was that some arborists do work that they know is not good for the tree and/or the client. They do the work anyway and justify their actions by saying they did it because it was what the client wanted. In these situations, the arborist who is supposed to be the knowledge expert is taking advice from someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about (the client), and then doing what that person said. There are fifty things wrong with that including damage to the reputation of the entire industry. Hence my want to vent.

But sometimes the client is actually right, which is awkward. As arguments go, ‘sometimes’ is not a great position to start from, unless you’re on social media where rules are optional and alternate facts exist – inexcusable and pitiful are words that come to mind. So I had to change the direction of my article. Ethics. Is it ethical to do what the client wants… if you know that what the client wants is wrong? 

Fantastic, I could now vent about arborists without morals and principles – shameful and contemptible are words that came to mind.  

But sometimes it’s not that simple, sometimes people do things because they have to; they do what they have to do to feed the whanau or pay the rent. And then sometimes people are just horrid, they know what they are doing is wrong and they do it anyway. And then, what if the client is right? So I find myself wanting to write an article about the ethics of doing or not doing what the client wants while acknowledging that sometimes there may not be a choice, that sometimes people are horrid, and that sometimes what the client wants is the right thing to do – problematic and difficult are words that come to mind.  

So here we go, but we are going to exclude the horrid crew as there are bigger issues in their lives.

Many young arborists set up for themselves with the knowledge that ‘the customer is always right’. This reputed and often recited piece of knowledge is the sum total of their business knowledge. There are of course many other problems if this is their sole understanding of business but let’s just focus on the customer/client relationship. The customer has to be always right because that is what business people and pushy customers say. But the reality is that customers are often wrong, and sometimes not just a little bit wrong, but absolutely wrong.  

As an arborist talking to a potential client, telling them that they are wrong isn’t always the best approach. But luckily you’re not alone. The principles behind selling tree work are exactly the same as selling any service, be it selling cosmetic surgery, or travel to the islands, or even study at university.  It’s just business, the business of selling and the internet is full of helpful hints.

More often than not the client doesn’t actually know what they want or why they want what they think they want. Your job is to assist them, so they get the best outcome. Your job as someone selling a service is to help the customer become right. So how is this done?

• Don’t make the client feel wrong. All of us make wrong assumptions about things we don’t fully understand, but nobody wants to have them pointed out. Customers want answers, not criticism
• Give examples. In tree work, this one is easy – direct them to examples of bad pruning or needless removals. Know your local area so you can point out factual situations and/or real examples
• Ask questions. Ask them what the objective is, often they are so focused on the task they forget the outcome. Sell the outcome, not the doing.
• Make recommendations. There may well be more than one way that they can get the outcome they want (hence needing to know their end goal). Give them options, and don’t be afraid to break up the work to help them in achieving their goal
• Add extra value. You’re selling a service, if you have to remove a tree then get the replanting work, or at the very least the stump removal. If you are spending half a day in the backyard, then maybe there is work in the front yard too. 

But remember you’re working for the customer, any additional services you sell has to be of value to them   

• Build relationships. Good service sales are about selling a foundation of trust backed up by the quality of doing. If the client doesn’t need anything done, then sell them that. Sometimes selling nothing can be very productive in the end.

And lastly…

• Stay true to yourself, you are selling a service, not your soul. If you can’t look back on the work that you have done with a sense of pride then start doing things differently or get another job.

• Written for Tree Matters (NZ)