Yesterday, I received a call from a customer concerning our performance on a project. It was not the kind of communication I relish receiving, but I needed to hear it. We pride ourselves on doing a better than average job for our customers, but sometimes we fall short. This particular job was not up to our standards for a variety of reasons, stemming from our own performance or lack thereof, but exasperated by the virus and the general fatigue that many of us are experiencing right now, myself included.
No matter how hard we try, we are all going to have a bad project from time to time or something that does not go as planned. It’s inevitable. I answered our customer with the best tool we have: Communication. My first words to him were, “The buck stops with me.” I admitted the mistake, told him we are working at full capacity to rectify it and committed to update him every few days.
To me, when the bullets are flying, and storm clouds above, the way one reacts to a negative situation can lead to a much stronger relationship. This my hope here. If our situation turns positive, then we will have another ambassador for our company.
