Every organization needs a mistake management plan – preferably one that fosters MASTERFUL mistake management. That’s because as hard as we may try to avoid making mistakes, we all make them from time to time. And what happens after that is critical to our success.
If you aren’t sure what I mean by this, read The Heaven and Hell of Making Things Right.
The purpose: To raise awareness of the benefits and how-to’s of masterful mistake management.
Whether you need to start from scratch to develop a mistake management plan or simply need some tips for tweaking, please join us for Mistake Management Month– an annual Business Class tradition during which we observe the way individuals, leaders and teams manage mistakes – and the resulting impact on their organizations.
The purpose: To raise awareness of the benefits and how-to’s of masterful mistake management.
The goal: Long range – wouldn’t it be great for all organizations were masters of mistake management? For this year, the goal is to simply double the number of the number of masterful mistake management stories we have in our collection.
Here is story #1 from Four Corners on Franklin Street.
We were a party of seven during the busy, boisterous back to school season. All orders were placed and food came out quickly for everyone but Janet. The waiter said it would be a few minutes. Janet appreciated the update.
The waiter said it would be a few minutes. Janet appreciated the update.
A few minutes later, the waiter came out and said the manager was “working on” Janet’s grouper sandwich.
A few “gone-to-the-beach-to-catch-it” jokes went around the table but no one was upset…just curious about what could be taking so long.
Several minutes later, the manager, Kristian Bawcom, came out with the sandwich. He didn’t give excuses or explanations, just a sincere apology: “This should not have happened”, he said. “There will be no charge for this and your drinks are on me too. For the whole table.”
That wasn’t all. Once everyone was done eating, the waiter brought a huge dessert platter for the table.
An apology would have been enough for us, but not for Four Corners. All of the extras – the manager’s delivery of the sandwich along with a very sincere apology, the free sandwich for Janet, free drinks for all seven of us, plus a special and free dessert platter – showed that they took the situation seriously and that they were truly sorry. And that they truly valued us as customers.
It sure was nice.
What happened that night showed signs of a Mistake Management Plan and masterful implementation as far as the customer could see. To be truly masterful, some action needed to be taken behind the scenes to find out and correct whatever it was that caused the slow cooking grouper sandwich. I don’t know if that happened or not. But I do know this. We’ve eaten there many, many times since that night – and it has never happened again.
But if it ever does – I won’t worry one bit because I’ll know that Mr. Bawcom and his staff at Four Corners will make things right.
That’s story #1 from our collection. I’ll share another in a few days.
Can you add a story to the collection – a story about masterful mistake management? Please share below or send it to Jan@BusinessClassInc.com
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