Why the customer is always right, right?

I was told that it doesn’t work like that. I said that I didn’t care – I wanted my drinks and if he can’t accept payment in a readily acceptable form then he would just have to take less. The clincher for me was when I asked if anyone else ever requests the ability to pay by credit card. When he told me that ‘heaps’ of people want to pay by plastic and they tell the owner all the time, obviously to no avail, it sealed the deal for me.

“I handed over a business card with an IOU written on it for $5 and told him to give that to the owner. I am not sure if the befuddled staff member knew what actually happened but he handed me my drinks valued at $11 and I handed him $6. The crowd behind me cheered. I rest my case.”

Case dismissed!

My children were not sure whether they should roll around and laugh at my behaviour or curl up in a ball and hide from their embarrassing grumpy old dad, but at the end they asked why a business wouldn’t take credit card.

I couldn’t answer them.

I can only assume they want to keep some cash out of the hands of the tax man or they think the fees are too high. My 11-year-old hit the nail on the head though.

She said, “Dad, if they have heaps of people asking to pay with credit card then why can’t they set it up?” If an 11-year-old can see the simplicity of that, surely a business owner can see it.

It is a mistake I see all too often in business. Listen to what your client wants. In the majority, I don’t find clients are ridiculous or ask for stupid things.

The irony of the situation was that sitting on the counter of this business was a survey form and a heading that said, “Tell us what you think”. I didn’t fill it in. It was obvious to me that someone in a marketing department had suggested a client survey form was a good idea but the culture in the organisation was not open or accepting to listen to what clients really needed. It was a waste of my time to fill it in (plus I had to start running before I was arrested).

Tell me your No. 1 frustration with businesses you deal with at md@smallbusinessrules.com. I will send a book on business rules to the first 20 people who e-mail me.