The Customer is Always Right!

As a Taekwon-Do School owner and Head Instructor I often find myself thinking, do I run a business with customers or a school with students? Fortunately, long ago I decided that I preferred to run a traditional ITF Taekwon-Do school as General Choi Hong Hi, the Father of Taekwon-Do envisioned it. That is, I run a school with students! I am both fortunate and blessed to have the privilege to run a Taekwon-Do school full-time, it is the way I make my living and I can devote my full attention to Centennial Taekwon-Do. My background in business accounting keeps the reality of business economics in the forefront of my thoughts about my School. I understand the need to make educated decisions on how to run my school from a economic business sense. I know that my income must exceed my expenses if I want my school to be an ongoing concern so that I can provide quality Taekwon-do and martial arts training to my students.


During my professional years I have worked for several large companies whose main focus is on customer service such as AMC Theatres, Regal Entertainment, and Paramount Pictures Promotional Services . I put myself through college working as a customer service representative for American Express Travelers Cheques. They spend millions every year promoting their customer service. I consider myself an expert on customer service, I know what it is and how to best provide it.

In response to my blog about avoiding contracts at martial arts schools, a martial arts school owner responded with the following in an attempt rationalize his use of contracts: "The peace of mind knowing the owner can make the rent and payroll make it worth it." I realized this person has a business with customers. In this case the term customer simply means, "revenue source".

I started Taekwon-Do when I was 9 years old and I have had a passion for the art all my life. I have worked hard so that my life's circumstances allow me to teach students, not service customers. Some people may not see the difference between a student and a customer. Fortunately, General Choi understood the difference and gave those that are serious about Taekwon-Do (not the business) guidelines on sharing the art. He set forth the Student/Instructor Relationship found in his Condensed Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do pages 44-45. I try to follow these guidelines carefully so that I can fulfill my responsibilities as an Instructor. A few of the points worth mentioning at this time are:

• Never tire of teaching. A good Instructor can teach anywhere, any time and always be ready to answer questions.
•  An Instructor must always set a good example for his students and never attempt to defraud them.
• The development of students should take precedence over commercialism. Once an Instructor becomes concerned with materialism, he will lose the respect of his students.
• All students should be treated equally, there should be no favorites.
• An Instructor should never seek any favors such as cleaning the studio, doing repair work, etc. from his students.
•  An Instructor should not exploit his students. The only purpose of an instructor is to produce both technically and mentally excellent students.
•  Always be honest with the students, and never break a trust.

I can only think that if all martial arts instructors were to follow these simple guidelines, the "used car salesman" reputation of the McDojos and franchise martial arts chains wouldn't tarnish the reputations the majority of schools and Instructors who have a passion for sharing their art and not just trying to make a quick buck (or a million bucks). Many of the McDojo owners would say I am an idealist, actually I walk the fine line between idealism and business realities

So if I have students not customers, what's the difference? Well I don't think a serious student of Taekwon-Do or any other martial art has to demonstrate their commitment to training by signing a 3 - 5 year contract (that is 36-60 months in McDojo terms). I don't want customers who feel obligated to train with me because they still have years left on their contract. I don't want to cover the rent from payments made from a customer who has quit training. Nor do I want customers who are only training at my school because I am the cheapest around. I want students who are committed to training because of their passion for Taekwon-Do and belief in what General Choi said about students; "A student must be willing to sacrifice for his art and Instructor." Condensed Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do page 45.

The reasons for training dramatically affect the attitudes of the students and in turn the atmosphere of the school. As an Instructor I feel it is my responsibility to provide a positive friendly atmosphere for my students to learn and train. If there are a bunch of unhappy customers who are only there because they are contractually obligated, the atmosphere becomes negative and not conducive to learning. On the other hand a group of students who share a passion for Taekwon-Do create a perfect environment to learn and grow.

So, if a customer is always right, will a business owner allow his customer to fail a Belt/Rank test? Or does the business owner just keep adding to an unending color belt system so they can collect more and more test fees. An Instructor would be concerned about the progress of his student, willing to put in the time and effort (without upgrade charges) to help the serious student prepare to succeed at Rank/Belt tests.

A business owner looks for as many different ways to increase revenue as possible from his revenue sources (customers). Upgrades are the holy grail of the McDojo. The business owner divides up the art and only teaches the whole to those who are willing to pay, leaving others wondering what happened to their dreams of learning martial arts. An Instructor shares his knowledge and experience in the martial arts as a whole with all of his students, he doesn't show favorites to those who might pay more.

Hopefully I have illustrated the difference between a customer and a student. So the next question you need to answer is, do you want to be a customer or a student?