Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: The Customer is Always Right?

Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For the written transcript, keep reading...In and Out Burger is one of the fastest growing chains in the fast food business. People love them, right? You’ve heard all about how great their products are. The only problem with In and Out Burger is they do it their way--not your way. They are proud of the fact that you're going to have your hamburger the way they want you to have it.

Did you know they only have one condiment at In and Out Burger? Thousand Island dressing is the only one they offer. One of my favorites, actually, but not exactly a great default condiment. (I know they have ketchup, but that’s for the fries.) Go into your local In and Out Burger and ask for mayo. They don’t have it. Ask for mustard and they won’t give it to you. It’s their way or Trailways! Yet people still rave about the place. People are willing to just take what they want them to take. I don’t get it. And, yes, I know about their little secret menu...I’m still not impressed.

Then there’s Jimmy John’s Sub shop. I got into a fight there one day because I wanted to change something on the sandwich I was buying. I was informed that they did not make changes. I had to take it their way or not at all. I chose not at all…with extreme prejudice.

Then there’s Cousins Subs. They don’t offer pickles; they are proud that they don’t have pickles. If you ask for pickles, they look at you as if you’re nuts. After all, who ever heard of pickles in a sandwich shop?

Chipotle Mexican Grill does not carry jalapenos, and they act insulted if you ask for them. Jalapenos with Mexican food? I must be crazy! And don’t even get me started on Starbucks and their whole line of insider BS where you have to speak their language or walk.

What's going on here? Why do people put up with this? Some embrace it. Some people seem to be so desperate to belong to any clique they’ll let these delicate geniuses dictate their tastes for them. It appears that some people not only like this lack of choice--they love it. They brag about loving these companies as if they think this is the way life should be.

Ever been on Southwest Airlines? Now that’s a special treat, isn’t it? How about the most profitable airline in the world, Spirit Airlines, where you pay for everything, even your carry-ons, and where the seats are so remarkably uncomfortable that their own execs laugh about it. Yet people still line up to fly with them.

While we’re on the subject, I can’t help taking another strike at Microsoft Outlook’s meeting invitation--the worst example of poor design in the industry. Check it out you’ll see what I mean. (By the way, if you want me to come to a meeting, send me an e-mail. If you send me a Microsoft Outlook meeting invitation I’m not going  I refuse to spend even 15 minutes trying to figure out those hieroglyphics.) Steve Jobs once famously said that the problem with Microsoft was a lack of taste. I agree with him wholeheartedly.

These are all examples of a new phenomenon where people are ceding their power as a customer to these companies; companies that for some reason we think are cool because they do it their way not our way. They are creating a following--a very loyal following--by dictating what we are going to get from them, whether or not we want it.

Have we become so passive, so sheepish, that we follow these companies aimlessly? Are we so desperate to become part of a cult that we will do it at all costs?

Look, a burger joint that doesn't let you have burgers the way you want them sucks; wake up and figure it out. A coffee is a coffee, not some sort of hedonistic rite and an invitation software should make your life easier--not more difficult…right?

We are going backward, we giving up our rights to freedom of choice by letting companies like Starbucks and In and Out do it their way. That’s not the way business works. Business is based on giving your customers what they want, the way they want it, and when they want it.

Okay, I’ve had enough fun with this, but I do have a point that pertains to our business and that deals with companies that go out of their way to make it difficult to do business with them. These are the companies who are engaging so called “purchasing companies” who provide central websites to help make their quoting “easier.” You know the ones I mean: If you want to do business with them you have to do it their way. You have to go to certain website and get a secret code and then you have to navigate the website (which is not always easy) to submit your quote. And get this: In some cases you have to pay a fee for the privilege of doing this! That’s right, you not only have to go through all of this unnecessary pain and suffering you have the indignity of paying for it as well! Talk about going backward in ease of doing business. If you’re one of those companies that I’m talking about here, I am calling you out because there is just no common sense to this at all. In this country, we are dedicated to making things easier...not harder. It’s only common sense.