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"The customer is always right" is a motto or slogan which exhorts service staff to give a high priority to

customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction (often abbreviated as CSAT) is a term frequently used in marketing. It is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of ...

. It was popularised by pioneering and successful retailers such as Harry Gordon Selfridge,

John Wanamaker John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838December 12, 1922) was an American merchant and religious, civic and political figure, considered by some to be a proponent of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing". He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a ...

and

Marshall Field Marshall Field (August 18, 1834January 16, 1906) was an American entrepreneur and the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores. His business was renowned for its then-exceptional level of quality and custome ...

. They advocated that customer complaints should be treated seriously so that customers do not feel cheated or deceived. This attitude was novel and influential when misrepresentation was rife and ''

caveat emptor ''Caveat emptor'' (; from ''caveat'', "may he/she beware", a subjunctive form of ''cavēre'', "to beware" + ''ēmptor'', "buyer") is Latin for "Let the buyer beware". It has become a proverb in English. Generally, ''caveat emptor'' is the contrac ...

'' (let the buyer beware) was a common legal maxim. Variations include "''le client n'a jamais tort''" (the customer is never wrong) which was the slogan of hotelier César Ritz who said, "If a diner complains about a dish or the wine, immediately remove it and replace it, no questions asked". A variation frequently used in Germany is "''der Kunde ist König''" (the customer is king), while in Japan the motto ''"okyakusama wa kamisama desu"'' () meaning "the customer is a god", is common. It was pointed out as early as 1914 that this view ignores that customers can be dishonest, have unrealistic expectations, and/or try to misuse a product in ways that void the guarantee. "If we adopt the policy of admitting whatever claims the customer makes to be proper, and if we always settle them at face value, we shall be subjected to inevitable losses." The work concluded "If the customer is made perfectly to understand what it means for him to be right, what right on his part is, then he can be depended on to be right if he is honest, and if he is dishonest, a little effort should result in catching him at it." An article a year later by the same author addressed the ''caveat emptor'' aspect while raising many of the same points as the earlier piece.

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