The customer is always right

"The customer is always right" is a motto or slogan which exhorts service staff to give a high priority to customer satisfaction. It was popularised by pioneering and successful retailers such as Harry Gordon Selfridge, John Wanamaker and Marshall Field. 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 ('let the buyer beware') was a common legal maxim.^[1]

Variations of the phrase include le client n'a jamais tort ('the customer is never wrong'), which was the slogan of hotelier César Ritz,^[2] who said, "If a diner complains about a dish or the wine, immediately remove it and replace it, no questions asked."^[3] A variation frequently used in Germany is der Kunde ist König ('the customer is king'), an expression that is also used in Dutch (klant is koning), while in Japan the motto okyakusama wa kamisama desu (お客様は神様です), meaning 'the customer is a god', is common.^{[citation needed]}