Learning to Take My Own Advice
I was just reading a post on IttyBiz about those days where, for whatever reason, you just don’t want to deal with the customer. Maybe you didn’t get much sleep the night before, or maybe one of your customers just rubs you the wrong way. Whatever the reason, sometimes we all slip and forget who’s paying our bills.
I’ve certainly been there.
What Was I Thinking?
I was working with a client to put some of their company training online. After I had finished the project, I got a call from my client, which went something like this:
Client: “I was reviewing the training and found typos and errors on these five pages.”
Me: “Okay, well we can fix that. It’ll probably cost about $X to get it taken care of.”
Client: “You’re charging us to fix your typos?”
Me: “No, I’m charging to fix your typos. What you see online is copied and pasted directly from what you provided us. We don’t proofread your content - that’s up to you. If you want us to proofread your work, that would cost $X.”
I never heard from him again. As far as I know, their training content remains unchanged, typos and all. When I think back on that conversation now, several years later, I think “Wow, what a colossally stupid thing to say.” I was busy. I had other projects to worry about. Bigger clients. Bigger problems. SO WHAT? This is someone who had come to me and said “I need to do this, and I’m willing to pay you to do it.” Even if they’re not a top priority, I should treat them like one.
If I Could Travel Back In Time…
What I should have done is pretty clear. It would have taken me (at most) 30 minutes to make the requested changes. I should have told my client I’d be happy to make those changes, free of charge, but informed my client that, for future reference, it is our policy to take content and put it online exactly as it is submitted to us.
In fact, even before that I should have run a basic spelling and grammar check on the entire document. Then I should have informed my client that I made these 10 changes (free of charge) and wanted to verify that they were in fact errors that needed to be fixed. That would have allowed me to subtly show my client that I’ve got his best interests in mind. A little goodwill goes a long way. Since then, this has become our standard policy.
As a business owner sometimes you have to step back and remind yourself that it’s not about you, what you think, what makes your life easier. You have to look at every part of your operation and say “Is this in my best interest, or the customer’s?” Ideally, it will be both, but when a conflict arises, your operations need to favor the customer.
Ever had a day like this, where your frustration spilled over onto a customer? How’d you make it right? Or was the damage already done?
What an inspiration! Go Kyle Go! Buckets and buckets of blessings on your...