In our business, when a customer is unhappy, it’s typically about a person’s performance. It’s just the nature of being a service business. If we made computers, they might be unhappy about the processor speed. If we sold closets, there might be an occasional issue about construction. But we sell a service, so when our customers are unsatisfied, it’s usually directed at a person or team caring for their facilities.
I think this makes it more challenging when there is an issue because it can feel very personal to hear that someone is unhappy with the service they are receiving from a member of your team. A slow computer processor can be optimized over time and a faulty closet system can be replaced but a person and their performance requires a bit more finesse when it comes to pinpointing the issue and resolving the problem.
There are of course situations where we learn pretty quickly that someone is just not a good fit for our organization. In this case you can send someone packing and bring in a new person, problem solved. But more often than not, the issue will come down to the employee needing something in the way of communication, training, systems or oversight, or of course all of these. These are not so much employee problems as they are manager problems. So it pains me when I hear a business owner or manager throw one of their team under the bus.
It’s one thing to vent or strategize with a manager on your team to try to get a meandering team member back on track. But when you place the blame with the employee in front of your customer, you just look bad. As business owners and operators, we all know the frustrations and issues inherent when you have a large team of people. And we know that one employee can throw things out of whack. Still, you hired them, you trained them, you manage them and so, their problems are your problems, especially when it comes to the customer.
It seems intuitive that as a manager you would just fix the problem, but I am often surprised at how many people can’t seem to just take the criticism from a customer and fix the issue without placing blame. Think about it, let’s say you are at a nice steak house and you have a fairly incompetent server. When an hour goes by and you still don’t have your food, you call the manager over to complain and he goes on and on about what a problem the server is and how he has tried all sorts of things and isn’t sure why they aren’t working out. Is that what you want? No, you want your steak right? So the next time you hear from an unhappy customer, give them the steak and not the story.
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