Last week, I was in rural Tennessee, helping my sister who recently experienced a medical emergency get set up with doctors for follow-up appointments. (She’s on the road to recovery, thanks for asking.)

The process of getting her set up was complicated by the fact that she is on Tennessee’s version of Obamacare, which sucks (insert rant about the healthcare system). Almost no one in her rural area accepts her plan and the best doctor that does accept her plan is a few hours away which, since she is prohibited from driving until cleared by a neurologist and is dependent on friends and neighbors for rides to the doctor, won’t work. So we got her set up with a local PCP.

He made a bad first impression on me by not having reviewed the medical records that the hospital had sent over, covering 3 weeks of care and follow-up requirements.

Then he asked me, “Where are you from?”

“New York City.”

So he called Mamdani a Communist and made a low-information comment that had clearly been shaped by his viewing preferences.

It’s always a mistake, when dealing with customers, to assume that they agree with your political views. Now, I’m up for a good political discussion every now and then but, given my sister’s situation, I thought it better to keep the focus on her and my tone neutral.

“It’s a big enough country for both our views,” I responded with a friendly smile, “there’s no need for us to argue about politics.”

“I’m not fighting about politics,” he snapped back, “I’m making conversation.” And then, under his breath but just loud enough for us to hear, “Stupid commie mayor.”

Really?

I bit my lip. He had already proven that he struggled to type and talk at the same time. The appointment would go much faster if he just focused on the business at hand.

I get it, we all have strong political opinions right now – and if we don’t, we should. And we’re all trying to find the balance between bringing our whole selves to work and what’s appropriate to share.

But if there’s one thing I learned working retail, it’s that you don’t pick fights with customers. Not because they’re always right. (They’re often not.) But because if you pick a fight with a customer, you lose their business.

No one can afford to lose business right now.

Now this guy knew that he had us over a barrel – if her health insurance had covered someone better, we wouldn’t have been talking to him – and we were women, so I’m sure he thought that we wouldn’t fight back. And we didn’t.

But did he really win?

No. The second she can afford better insurance again, this guy will get kicked to the curb. GenX women just don’t have patience to do business with unwise people.

A friend from Alabama advised me later that was the ideal moment to have have tossed a little, “Well, bless your heart” at him. Sure. But, being a New Yorker – and a New Yorker that even New Yorkers call “direct” – my tone would have made it sound a little more like a phrase you’d hear between a cabbie and a cyclist at 2 a.m.

My point being, take a listen to how your team is interacting with customers, maybe look in the mirror, too, and tune it up.

Or you may not have any customers left.

(Most of the rest of the people I met there seemed very nice.

We didn’t discuss politics.)