In Customer Service, a Tie Goes to the Customer

When genuine confusion arises between your business and a customer, apply a longstanding informal rule in sandlot baseball: a tie goes to the customer.

Last month, I had the opportunity to visit Florida for a few days before helping drive my parents back to their summer home in Iowa. The day after I arrived in Florida, I ran down to a nearby grocery store to purchase some groceries. Because the store wasn’t busy, a single lane was open, and the one customer ahead of me had no more than a dozen groceries. Expecting a quick checkout, I navigated my cart into the lane and placed the handful of groceries I had onto the conveyor belt.

Over five minutes later, I was still waiting.

When the customer ahead of me noticed that he had been charged for a package of candy bars, he asked the cashier why the candy bars weren’t free. The customer explained that the store flyer advertised a free package of candy bars with the purchase of Coke products. The cashier replied that a coupon was required, and because the customer did not have the coupon, she had to charge the customer for the candy bars.

What occurred next was a flurry of activity involving the cashier, the customer, and two assistant managers to determine whether the customer needed a coupon to receive the candy bars for free.

The first assistant manager insisted that a coupon was required, and he even went to the aisle and brought back a rectangular advertising placard that revealed, in smaller print, “with coupon.” The second assistant manager retrieved and paged through the store flyer, eventually locating the advertisement, which didn’t mention anything about a coupon being required.

In the meantime, the customer apologized for the confusion and told the cashier “not to worry about it, I just won’t get the candy bars or Coke.”

But confusion still prevailed. The first assistant manager left the scene to “confirm” the accuracy of the store flyer. The second assistant manager showed the store flyer to the cashier, who responded “Hmmm…” And the customer, now metaphorically waiving a white flag in a desperate attempt to surrender, again told the cashier to “forget about it, I don’t need the candy bars or Coke, anyway.”

It was at that point the second assistant manager told the customer, “We’re still not sure about this, but we won’t charge you for the candy.” A moment later, the customer left with his Coke, candy bars, and other noncontroversial groceries.

The tragic part of this story is that it consumed over five minutes for the grocery store to decide not to charge the customer for the candy bars, when it should have taken only a fraction of that time.

Sandlot baseball has a longstanding informal rule that a “tie” goes to the runner. In other words, when it’s not readily apparent whether the ball or the runner arrived to the base first, the runner receives the benefit of the doubt.

And that’s how it should be in customer service: a tie goes to the customer. When the grocery store first realized the inconsistency between its advertising placard and its store flyer, the decision should have been quick and easy: the customer receives the candy bars for free. After all, the grocery store — not the customer — sparked the confusion by creating an inconsistent advertising placard and store flyer. Therefore, a tie goes to the customer.

This week, take a moment to confirm that information your business furnishes to customers isn’t contradictory, inconsistent, or confusing. If there is any risk that information could be interpreted multiple ways, revise the information so that it is abundantly clear and readily understandable to customers. Finally, if genuine confusion does arise between your business and a customer, resolve the confusion in favor of the customer, who likely assumed no role in creating the inconsistency itself. Remember: a tie goes to the customer.

As always, have a “customerific” week!

Mark