If you follow the business management literature, there's a very active discussion on how successful businesses recognize that there's a threshold to customer service beyond which you are wise to turn away difficult customers. The CEO of Southwest Airlines has been a vocal advocate for this topic, which many businesses practice but never say out loud.

If you enter a restaurant and complain that your meal is horrible, they will frequently offer a refund, a replacement entree, a gift certificate, or some other compensation.

If you enter that same restaurant again the next two nights, and each time complain that the food is horrible... they will probably suggest that you consider other restaurants for future dining. If anyone really thought "the customer is always right", this would not be the case-- they would just endlessly offer that customer free meals. There are weak exceptions (Nordstrom's comes to mind from my experience as a business that bends over backwards even when they know they're being taken advantage of), but they are few.

The more realistic adage from my industry is "Trust, but verify." Customer complains about a meal once? Offer compensation, politely take away the food, and inspect it back in the kitchen. See if one particular chef draws all the complaints. Smell or taste a little for yourself. See if the customer will describe why they were displeased. If you diagnose a problem, fix it.

The same customer always complains regardless of your efforts? There's a higher probability that it's the customer, and you're losing more business by catering to their unusual tastes than you are by sacrificing that customer.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com