Small Business Q & A: How To Handle The Occasional Oop-See!

Q: My company is really in hot water with one of our best customers.
I can't reveal exactly what happened, but suffice it to say that
we really dropped the ball and the customer is furious. I'm not
even sure we can save the account. What's the best way to get
back in a customer's good graces after making such a mistake?
-- Charles W.

A: Without knowing the full story, Charles, I can't give you a
specific course of action, but let's start at the sharp end of
the uh-oh stick and work our way back to see if we can come with
up some advice that might help.

First off, it's important that you understand that the magnitude
of your mistake will determine the course of action you take to
make amends. If your company's error was such that it caused
your customer a significant amount of lost time or revenue,
embarrassed them publicly, caused damage to their reputation, or
otherwise negatively affected their bottom line, you may face
legal repercussions that saying "I'm sorry" will not deter. If
that's the case you should consult an attorney immediately and
prepare for the worst. Whether or not the worst comes is
irrelevant. You must be prepared for it.

Now on to dealing with more minor offenses. As anyone who has
read this column for any length of time knows, I'm cursed with
daughters. I used to say I was blessed with daughters, then
they learned to walk and talk. Blessed quickly became cursed.
Now my oldest daughter is an inch taller than me and getting
all lumpy in places I'd rather not think about. She's a sad
case, really. The poor kid needs an operation. She has a
cellphone growing out of her ear. But I digress…

When she was a toddler she coined the phrase, "Oop-see!" Whenever
she did something innocently destructive, like knock over a glass
of orange juice on my new computer keyboard or shove a Pop Tart
in the VCR tape slot, she would look at me with her huge brown
eyes and say, "Oop-see!" My wife says there is a reason God
made kids cute. Oop-see moments are evidence that she is right.

Oop-see meant, "Uh oh, I didn't mean to do that. I was wrong.
I'll never do that again. Forgive me? Love me? Buy me toys…
Oop-see worked like a charm every time. Now, I certainly don't
expect you to bat your eyes at your customer and say, "Oop-see!"
but consider the effect her words had on me. Instead of screaming
at the top of my lungs like I wanted to do (hey, have you ever
tried to dig a Pop Tart out of a VCR) I immediately softened and
found myself actually taking her side. "Aw, it's OK, really, we
all make mistakes…"

What my daughter had figured out is that it's hard to stay mad at
someone who admits a mistake, sincerely apologizes for it, and
vows never to let it happen again. Little did I know this was
only one of many tactics she would employ over the years in her
never-ending quest to wrap her daddy several times around her
little finger, but that's a whole different column.

Dale Carnegie said it best: "Any fool can try to defend his or
her mistakes - and most fools do - but it raises one above the
herd and gives one a feeling of nobility and exultation to admit
one's mistakes."

Carnegie and my daughter were basically saying the same thing:
When you (or your company) make a mistake, no matter how large
or small, the best thing you can do is quickly admit the error
of your ways and face the consequences, come what may.

Here are a few things you can do to help set things right with
your customer.

Assemble the facts. The very first thing you should do is find
out what went wrong and why. Meet with your key people and
gather the facts. Ask specific questions like: What was the
mistake? What caused it? Who was involved? What could have
been done to prevent the mistake from happening and what can be
done to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Put yourself in your customer's shoes. I've been on both ends
of the uh-oh stick and neither is very comfortable. My company
has dropped the ball on occasion and we have also been negatively
impacted when one of our vendors did the same. Put yourself
in your customer's shoes and consider what could be said or done
to remedy the situation from their point of view.

Take responsibility for the actions of your company. In my role
as a company president there have been times when I've had to
call up a customer and confess that a mistake was made, and as
president it was also my responsibility to take the heat for it.
Remember, you're the head cheese, Charles, you get to sit behind
the big desk and take home the nice paycheck. You're also the
one that gets to mop up when your employees makes a mess. It
just goes with the job.

Do not place the blame on specific employees. No matter how
tempting it is to put the blame on specific people in your
organization (even if that's where the blame lies), do not do
it. It is unprofessional, counterproductive and can backfire
on you, especially if the person you're blaming reports directly
to you. Saying something like "My sales manager is always
making mistakes like this!" is not going to make your customer
feel any better. To the contrary, such statements will make the
customer question your leadership ability and the quality of all
your employees, not just the one that made the mistake. If you
don't have faith in your company and employees, why should your
customer?

Don't deny that a mistake was made, especially when there is
clear evidence to the contrary. You're not Richard Nixon,
for petesake, so don't try to pretend that the mistake didn't
happen or stage some elaborate cover-up to try and dodge the
blame.

Admit your mistake. This may sounds trite, but you must admit
your mistake before you can move ahead and start to make amends.
Don't be so afraid to take this step. I doubt your company is
the first one to screw up with this customer and I can guarantee
you certainly won't be the last.

Apologize for the mistake. The one thing that could make the
situation better is often the thing that companies find hardest
to do. I don't mean to sound like Dr. Phil, but simply saying
you're sorry is often the best way to get a business relationship
back on track.

Ensure the customer that it will never happen again. After you
have taken responsibility for the mistake and apologized in a
sincere and professional manner, you must then start the process
of rebuilding the trust that was lost. Promising that such a
mistake will not happen again is a good way to start.

Compensate the customer for his loss. Even if your mistake
didn't cost the customer a dime, he will appreciate an offer
of compensation. This can be something as simple as a lunch
on you or a discount on his next order. The size of the
compensation offered should be in direct proportion to the size
of your mistake. A word of warning: don't let the customer
bully you into overcompensating him for your mistake. That
can be more detrimental to the relationship than the mistake
itself.

As my daughter understood all those years ago, Charles, a
sincere Oop-see can help make things all better.

Here's to your success!

Tim Knox
tim@dropshipwholesale.net
For information on starting your own online or eBay business,
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