Do You Have a System in Place to Minimize Damage? [VIDEO]
From time to time, you will have tough clients or your staff will make errors. It happens. Do you know how to protect your brand when it does? Our CEO and Founder, Ozana Giusca, has filmed this video to share her experience with this kind of situation with you, small business owners. Learn how to minimize damage in the video above or read the script and the examples below!
Ozana: “I have a flat here in London to rent out. I put it up myself online and when the agents saw it, they bombarded me with emails and phone calls to use their services, all claiming they have enquiries for a flat like mine.
I agree with one agency to market my property, but I explicitly tell the letting manager NOT to advertise my flat on any of the public sites … because I want all the online enquiries to come to my ad and directly to me.
An hour later, I check Zoopla, the main site for property ads in London and to my surprise, my property is listed there by this agency. I immediately email her and ask her to remove my property.
A couple of hours later, the ad is still there. Even more angry this time, I call her and her answer is: ‘Oh, where exactly did you see the ad? It was not supposed to be there…’
I say, ‘On Zoopla. Contract off.’
She says: ‘It’s not my fault. This must be X, my colleague.’
She is THE letting manager, so I wonder whose fault it really is. Instead, she could have checked when I emailed her initially, removed my ad, and THEN phoned me to say she had fixed the problem.
Now, not only did she not keep her word, but she didn’t even bother to take any action to solve the situation.
If a similar situation happens to your business, how do you react? [Do you have a system in place to handle such a situation?] I am not saying you are a lousy real estate agent. I am saying you have a solid business, but you have a tough client like me, and one of your staff screws up. How can you protect your brand, and possibly save that deal or the sale?”
Find more ideas to help you minimize damage in the examples below
How do you minimize the damage if you are a small flower shop providing same-day deliveries? It’s not easy to live up to your promise of same-day delivery – even if things run smoothly on your side of the delivery process, the recipient might not be at the specified address or the delivery team may not be allowed past the lobby security point. The first step for satisfying your customers is to arm your delivery team with a strong deliver-no-matter-what attitude. Yes, it is worth going twice to the same address if the recipient is not there. It costs 7 times more to acquire a new client than it does to retain one. So be wise and make sure your delivery staff go back 5 times, if necessary! The client who receives this royal treatment will return to your shop / website and will also spread the word about the quality of your services – and you’ll win twice over. If your delivery guys aren’t allowed beyond the security checkpoint of a building, make sure they don’t leave before the recipient comes to collect his gift – even if it’s past their lunch break. Let’s say the delivery guy decides his lunch is more important: make sure the company makes up for his mistake and saves the business relationship with that client by offering the next delivery for free.
Your business provides copywriting services for the food and beverage industry. You rely on the talent and creativity of your copywriters. To err is human, but how can you deal with human mistakes in your business? If a copywriter from your team fails to meet the deadline, the worst thing you can do as a project manager is fail to acknowledge the mistake or deny ownership and blame it on your colleague. Your client, a big beer company, is not looking for the guilty party, but for a quick solution for his advertorial that should already have been published. Instead of wasting time in finding out who’s guilty, mobilize more resources to get the job done ASAP and think up a strategy to make it up to your client for the delay. You can offer him a fat discount for the next TV ad or give him a bonus press release. The key to dealing with mistakes is to stay focused on the future. People like to get stuff for free, so the best way to apologize is by doing precisely this. What if the delay is in fact due to slow delivery from the beer company? Even then, it’s good to stay on your client’s side and help him find the best solution to his challenge. If that client is a client you really want to have, it’s worth going the extra mile for him.
Such a strategy is required if you want to get to the next level because you need to be certain you don't have unhappy clients. Besides, you need to ensure there is CONGRUENCY in the entire business.
When you are ready to identify exactly what needs to be adjusted and what to focus on immediately to maximize your company's value, join us for the Discovery Day.
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