Both customers and employees should like the restaurant for a good experience. Customers are right when they are right. Just because a customer buys a drink or food does not give him/her the right to abuse employees or unfairly take advantage of the restaurant.
A typical restaurant serves thousands of people a month and a few of them will be unreasonable, maybe sometimes even disrespectful. Restaurant management should support the employees who work every day to represent the restaurant and its values and serve the customers accordingly. Managers and owners have to support them when the customer is out of line. This will in turn help to motivate the employees to do their best therefore making the restaurant a better a better place for the majority of the customers. It is the right approach and also a better business policy.
Of course, lack of proper training and a bad employee can lead into a lousy customer service but “customer is always right” policy dos not fix the underlying management problem, just masks it.
If the management puts the employee first, the employee will put the business first and that is the way to effectively build the business.
