Mistakes In Business & Life

Don't you wish there was an Eraser for everything?

I thought I was wrong once, but I made a mistake.

Everyone makes mistakes. The question is, how do you deal with a mistake in business without compounding it’s effect?

Yesterday, my auto-responder went out with |*Merge* | tag showing instead of the recipients name. Embarrassing? YOU BET! I wish I would have waited to press the “send” button! But I can’t take it back. It could become something that I really stress about.

Sure that’s a little mistake; but do you ignore it and go on? Do you bring attention to it by apologizing?

I can tell you the thing NOT to do from an experience I had with customer service.

I had to return something that I purchased at a store because it didn’t work the way the salesman said it would. And I had SPECIFICALLY had asked about it, and traveled to the store to get it.

“No one else complained! You are the first one who ever had a problem. I’m doing the best I can….. “

All these responses are “defensive” responses and will work against you, not just in business, but in all your personal communications as well.

On the contrary, showing your vulnerability, and admitting to making a mistake lets your client, or friend/spouse/children know that you know you are human! For the vast majority of people, it will actually improve your relationship rather than harm it.

Last night, someone made a HUGE mistake that affected millions of people who gatherered to watch the Fourth of July Fireworks downtown San Diego. Some people interviewed said they traveled here from far away specifically to see the event.

What happened? A programming error resulted in a 1 second mass explosion of all of the fireworks at once, instead of a entertaining and rousing beautiful show. A giant cloud of smoke enveloped all of downtown. That was it – no more fireworks! People stood with their mouths agape, and finally, after waiting over an hour, were told by the police that there would be no more, and to go home.

Now that’s a MISTAKE! If you were the business owner of the fireworks company, first of all, you could be thankful that no one was injured or killed. But after that..? What do you do? It cost your countless thousands of dollars.

The bigger the mistake, the less likely you are to ever repeat it. LL

If you owned this business, and wanted to keep it, what would you do? Forget it, and put it behind you? Schedule another free event? Doing another event would undoubtably, cost thousands more.

What do you do when you make a mistake? Do you shift blame, stonewall, become defensive? Or do you have the self-esteem and courage to expose yourself as a human who isn’t always perfect, and work towards a good solution?

Please share what you think the Fireworks company should do, or how you’ve handled your own mistake, IF you ever made one! LOL