It’s the 4th week of the month and you know what that means – our creative director, Blake is asking the question….
Check out Blake’s question on this week’s episode of Incredible Factor TV:
As I share in the episode, mistakes being made, no matter who makes them, can be a tough situation to rebound from. Ultimately, your client’s confidence in you diminishes a little or a lot depending how you handle it.
A few years ago, I had a member of my team make a mistake that impacted a client. And, although I personally didn’t make the mistake, I had to take ownership of it. The party who erred was working on behalf of my brand. And it was hard because it was a big mistake. It was so big that it cost the team member their job.
In our business (and I hope you feel the same), clients may not always be right, but they always deserve to be respected and provided with a level of service that exceeds their every expectation.
And humans make mistakes. So, when you make a mistake (and it’s likely that you will), here are my top keys to manage the mistake and get back on track.
1. Own the mistake. Ownership is so important because it is what allows others who believe in you to keep believing in you. It may be hard to own that you messed up, I get that. But what I know surely is that saying you messed up is the right first step toward creating something magical.
2. Apologize. Often, people just want to feel like they matter. They want to be heard. And an apology can go a long way to helping them restore their confidence in your company as a service provider for them. The bigger the mistake, the harder it can seem to come back from…but an apology and acknowledgement is always the way to start. I have found that whenever I am vulnerable and “real” with my clients, they lean a little bit more into what I offer them. And that will always create a good environment for success.
3. Create an action plan of how you’ll turn the mistake into a masterful next step. It’s one thing to mess up and another to have a plan on how you’ll be able to create a shift from mistake to magic. Once I got wind of the mistake that was made by my team, I immediately sprang into action to create a plan of how we’d be able to correct it. And by the time I reached the client to apologize, I had a solution already mapped out. By proactively focusing on the solution I could offer, it took the sting out of the mistake. And I was easily granted grace by the client. See, when we act as if we aren’t at fault or take a stance of defensiveness, we threaten the fabric of the relationship and set ourselves up to lose a client.
So, now I want to hear from you. What’s your two cents? What do you do when you make a mistake? How do you restore your client’s confidence?
©2017 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, MBA, The Incredible Factor Business Optimization Coach and Mentor, is the founder of Incredible One Enterprises®, Incredible Factor University® and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System®, a proven step-by-step program so you experience financial and spiritual abundance in your life because of your business. For more information and a FREE audio CD “7 Critical Mistakes Even Smart Entrepreneurs Must Avoid for Clients, Connection and Cash Flow!” just fill out the form below.
