Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

It happens to all of us. That godawful “snap wide awake at 3 a.m., pit of the stomach” realization that - yep - we’re screwed. We made a bonehead mistake on a contract; we forgot the critical enclosures for a document or product; the bill didn’t get paid; the bill did get paid (oops, twice - there goes this month’s cash flow); we hit “reply all” on a real flamer…and so and so forth.

This is particularly awful when a customer or client is involved. One option is to say nothing and hope they won’t notice. Or, we can suck it up, call them up, and tell them ourselves, ideally before they even notice.

I know which course of action works best for me. (I once had a boss tell me - after I’d done a royal screw-up - “Mary, it’s just no fun to ‘beat’ on you. You’re far harder on yourself than I could ever be.”)

It’s rather like ripping off a band-aid - do it all at once and get over with. The customer or client will (usually) respect you all the more for your honesty. And, if they don’t? Well, at least you can look yourself in the mirror (even if you are making a face.)

Tags: customer service