Accept Customer Incivility, It is a part of your job!

A few weeks ago I was in Jimmy John's on College Avenue and I could not help but to notice this sign hanging above the register. I asked the cash register worker about the sign and he explained to me that anytime a customer is upset about anything the employees are required to follow this guideline. The phrase, "The customer is always right" popped into my mind. I am almost 100% certain that every single store or company that offers some type of service follows this motto in some way or in other. I know that I had to follow this motto in my three years of work at ice cream stores. No mattter what, the customer is always right. What about circumstances such as the Safeway Case, where female workers actually brought suit against their employers after being forced to make eye contact with patrons for three seconds and smile even though the male patrons were making suggestive comments which made the work environment stressful. If the same method that Jimmy John's uses in terms of customer dissatisfaction and how employees must always take the blame was applied in the same matter to the Safeway employees then this means the employees would basically be held responsible for not continuing to "lead" the male patrons on and have to apologize to them. Imagine the negative emotional effects that would occur. In my opinion, employees should take responsiblity and apologize when customers are not happy with the product that they came for, but in some instances, this takes emotional labor too far.