Happy Sunday Everyone:
I was traveling back from a baseball tournament in Arizona last week, hence the no Sunday Thoughts. I was in a uber on the way back to the hotel after visiting some college buddies and left my phone in the car. I realized what I had done 2 minutes later but nothing I could do. Raced back to hotel room to log on to uber, once logged in, extra security required by sending a passcode via txt….??? doesn’t really help if code is attached to the phone getting further and further away from my hotel. Try to call uber, you cant. Sunday Morning I call ATT to tell them my phone is lost. I’m speaking to a woman who doesn’t speak English, or understand it. Aside from 4 cell phones, internet, alarm, thermostat, and monthly bill of approx. $600 combined, she is 100% certain that I’m not a client, she can’t find my account. I literally started sweating. Four days later, new cell phone, no contact w/ uber, and I hate ATT…..I view both of these companies as necessary evils…I’ll use Lyft from now on, and if I could get away from ATT I would.
I don’t want my business to be a necessary evil to anyone. I don’t want a client ever looking at me as a necessary evil. We all need to spend a lot more time with the thought of “if I was my client, how would I feel right now”. We can’t control issues that arise but we have 100% control on how we handle the issues, how we communicate, how we resolve. Not all things are created equal, and I’m glad for that, but if they were, and you had to pick one single differentiator to separate yourself from everyone, I would choose “how we make people feel”. If you don’t make clients feel anything, and you only execute flawlessly, that’s great….until you screw up. If a client (or business partner) knows you care, you still need to be great, but you don’t need to be perfect.
I was thinking about this exercise for my whole team with how we deal with conflict/issues, and making sure clients/business partners know we care:
1. respond as quickly as you know the issue exists. Even if you don’t have the answer. I don’t cry wolf with our operations often but when I need something, I email the head of operations and typically get a response within 2-5 minutes that says “on it”. My stress goes from a 10 to a 5 in a moment. Business partners and clients feel the same way, the biggest stress comes from people avoiding calls/emails because they don’t have answers.
2. Do not hide behind email. Email always sound defensive and leads to blame instead of resolution. in general, people know we care more in our voice on the phone than email.
3. apologize once and then be clear/concise/direct with how an issues is being resolved. If I’m the client, I want to hear this person cares, but also is not going to break under pressure. The more uncomfortable we get dealing with conflict, the more comfortable we become.
4. If you tell someone you’re going to get back to them at a certain time, NEVER let that time elapse, even if you don’t have the answer.
5. Always confirm with all parties that the issue is resolved and all parties are satisfied, or at the very least, understand the outcome. As soon as you assume the client knows it’s taken care of, the call comes in asking for an update. You don’t look like you care when this person spent an extra hour worrying about something already taken care of.
I know I’m a broken record on taking one example and turning into a life example but there are not too many things in life more important than conflict resolution and people knowing you care. It’s what makes a business great, it’s what makes a human great. It could be a loan, it could be friendship, it could be In-N-Out dealing with a messed up cheeseburger….examples are big and small but I’m quite certain if we spent more time in our clients shoes, or “the other person”, we’d be happier, more successful, and have more business thrown at us….care travels like wildfire, and in thinking about it, so does lack there of.