Quick Response to Failure Leads to Satisfied Client

My last post about a value assessment failure reminded me of a recent “failure” that required me to go into damage control mode. The experience reminded me of the value of quickly admitting the failure and following up with evidence of a process to correct it. People tend to forgive but they will not do business with you again if you don’t take care of the problem.

The situation was where a client attended a one day workshop on how to set up a lean office. We were just about to start a lean manufacturing training program with this client, and their president was also heading up a local lean consortium of companies. So, a lot was riding on our performance. Just about everything that could go wrong did. The workshop was understaffed and the leader was not feeling well. The next day I got an earful from the client’s customer service manager who attended. I summarized what he said and promised him I would present this to our management and take corrective action. We took the action to improve how we prepared for the workshop, incorporated suggestions made and followed up with the client to make sure they knew that we knew we had messed up and fixed it.

My experience is that if you quickly admit poor performance, and then take action to correct it, you will be further ahead with your client than if the problem had not occurred.