What’s Wrong with the Word Customer?

Have you noticed that a lot of businesses seem to have a policy of referring to their customers as guests?

Now, this makes total sense for a hotel and possibly a restaurant, but how about an airline?  Last night, flying back from Boston on Virgin America, I noticed that everybody was referring to the people on the plane as ‘guests’ and it struck me as a little off.  When you’re being transported from one place to another, you’re a passenger.

You might see this as a quibble, but I don’t.  I see it as gobbledygook-creep or the tendency for businesses to start saying things in ways that are not based in plain and simple reality, but instead based on something some executive read in an inflight magazine.

It’s also the kind of superficial step that bad customer service managers point to in order to demonstrate that they’ve done something useful, but it’s such an empty gesture that people feel the chill.  When customer service people are forced to mouth the obviously rehearsed, the insincerity can’t be missed.  In other words, putting an awkward phrasing into the mouths of a mediocre customer service organization  can be worse than just letting them say what honestly comes to mind.

But I think I know how the whole ‘guest’ thing started.

About 20 years ago, Japan took over the world.  Well, to be more precise, it seemed like they were going to take over the world because economically, they were peaking and we were slumping.  Suddenly, everything the Japanese did from a business point of view was magical and everything American was lousy.

In the Japanese language, the word “okyaku” or “okyaku-san” means, roughly, customer.  It also means “guest.”  In other words, it’s one of those “200 words for snow” things where one language simply doesn’t have an equivalent word, and in Japanese, there’s no separate word for ‘customer’ versus ‘guest.’

So you can imagine that some smarty-pants who learned this over-interpreted the whole thing and said, “maybe if we thought of our customers as our guests, we’d do customer service better too.”

Trippy, man.

Let me tell you a couple things about customer service here and in Japan.  (Just so you know, I know a little bit what I’m talking about here.  I lived and worked in Japan for almost 3 years and am certified one level below translator in the Japanese language, although I’ll admit to being pretty rusty…)

First, American service is really good.  Go to England or France sometime and then come talk to me about service. “Because that is how we do it…” is still an acceptable reason to refuse your request in Europe.

Second, Japanese service is good (and arguably better than American service) for reasons that are so much deeper than things like calling people guests.  It’s a level of culture-deep empathy for others and a sense of obligation that simply doesn’t exist here.  This cultural trait has its pluses and minuses.  Japan’s not exactly a nation of iconoclastic rule-breakers hell bent on changing the world.  Good and bad come with every culture and in my opinion, both American and Japanese cultures are really great constructive ones.

And it’s funny because whenever people wax rhapsodic about how the Japanese treat their customers as guests, I always wonder why they don’t see it the other way around:  guests as just customers.

And anyway, what’s wrong with being a customer?

To me, the word “customer” emphasizes the nature of the relationship:  a person has decided to put down his or her hard-earned money for your product or service.  It makes it seem pretty important that you do a good job for them and deliver something special.  I think it’s important for people interacting with paying customers to remember that and keep it near top of mind.

They’re not your guests.  You didn’t generously open your home in a gesture of charity and good will.  They paid you and they have expectations that you’ll deliver.

Saying “guests” creates that little layer of bull that allows people to drift off into business-babble and say things like, “How may I provide you with excellent service today?”

Airlines have passengers: they’re being paid to take someone in safety, comfort and in a timely fashion from one place to another.

Hotels have guests: they’re being paid to take care of people while they’re staying in the building.

Live entertainment venues have patrons or audience members or fans because that’s what they are.  But they’re also customers because they’re paying to see the show.  I wouldn’t advise live entertainment venues to use the term ‘guest’ unless you’re putting out 2000 clean towels at the end of the night.

Listen, I’m not saying this should be a hard and fast customer service rule.  Sometimes ‘guest’ might work for you.  But what I am saying is that you should think about why you’re using that term.  Does it just sound like something you’ve heard that makes what you’re doing seem more grand?  If so, ditch it.

It’s not about sounding grand.  It’s about being clear and remembering what you’re there to do.  The people who were stuck on those planes for 18 hours a few weeks ago might have been on long enough to feel like “guests,” (or possibly prisoners) but no matter how nice the plane is, I’m ready to get out of there when I get when we land.