We have talked before (and I have taken some guff) about my belief that the customer is NOT always right. Customers are human.

They sometimes are wrong. I know. It seems crazy and counter to everything you have read about how to succeed in business. But it is the honest truth.  You cannot please everyone.  Some people cannot be pleased no matter how hard you try!

This sign is from a shop in Beijing, China.

Today I have found an article for you (read the excerpt below, then click over to read the rest) that backs up my belief.

The article shares stories from companies large and small who have realized that not every customer is right for their business.

The customer is always right?

When the customer isn’t right - for your business

One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.

She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.

Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’

In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”

The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to:

1. Convince customers that they will get good service at this company
2. Convince employees to give customers good service

Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service.

Read the rest here.

I will be making corned beef in the slow cooker for St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow. (I will post photos and details later.)

I have never tried to make a Guinness cake, but I am a big fan of Nigella Lawson’s and I am willing to give this a try. I tend to like desserts that are not cloyingly sweet and this might be just the ticket.

Chocolate Guinness Cake
From “Feast” by Nigella Lawson

Ingredients
Cake
1 cup Guinness stout (not the whole can)
1 stick unsalted butter (I substituted Earth Balance shortening seamlessly), sliced
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups granulated sugar (superfine, if possible)
¾ cup sour cream (I substituted plain yogurt without a hitch)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

Icing
8 ounce cream cheese
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
½ cup heavy cream

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line bottom with parchment paper.

Pour Guinness into a large saucepan, add butter and heat until melted. Whisk in cocoa powder and sugar. In a small bowl, beat sour cream with eggs and vanilla and then pour into brown, buttery, beery mixture and finally whisk in flour and baking soda.

Pour cake batter into greased and line pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (Check at 45 minutes for doneness, poking a skewer in center.). Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

When cake is cold, gently peel off parchment paper and transfer to a platter or cake stand.

Place cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a mixing bowl, and whip with an electric beater, until smooth (You may also do this with a food processor.).

Add cream and beat again until you have a spreadable consistency.

Ice top of cake, starting at middle and fanning out, so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Yields about 12 slices.

My friend, client and photographer, Eustacia Mahoney, up and moved to Atlanta (to further her career or something equally selfish.)  I image that living a life in the Pacific Northwest does little to prepare a person for a tornado; but ever the intrepid investigative photographer, she chronicled the aftermath in her neighborhood for us.  These photos remind me to be grateful that I live in a place where things like this are unlikely to occur.

Just a quick note with link to some photos I took yesterday after Friday’s tornado.  Living in the South is far from boring.  I’m okay, no damage to my place only some debris to pick up in the yard.  I certainly feel blessed as not all in my neighborhood were so lucky.  My only inconvenience was just over 24 hours without power.  The sound of that tornado coming down my street is certainly not one I will EVER forget.

You can see more photos here.