Businesses make mistakes. All of them, on occasion, will get something wrong. Maybe a restaurant will mess up your order; perhaps a computer supplier will sell you the wrong software for your application, or maybe a piece of heavy engineering will be delivered late for a contract. Sometimes it’s a human error, sometimes a series of systems mistakes.
Good businesses look at the reasons for their mistakes, and install changes to try and make sure that the mistake won’t happen again. Sometimes they are very good at this, and develop a reputation for fault-free operation.
Great businesses do something else as well. To illustrate what I mean, here’s a trivial anecdote. I went into a snack restaurant in a UK city. They had great fresh sandwiches, and terrific soups. It was a cold day, and I bought a soup and a sandwich. When I got to a table I found that the soup wasn’t hot; just warm, so I took it back and complained. The woman running the restaurant apologised, replaced my soup with a hot one, figured out what had happened and then did the great thing. She gave me a free coffee. (I told you this was a trivial story!).
The point of the story is that I now remember the free coffee, not the cold soup. I went in again some weeks later, with absolute confidence that if everything were not perfect they would sort the problem out and leave me feeling happy. I associate the place with excellent service, as well as great snacks.
So here’s a general thought; how a business deals with complaints and problems is terribly important. At best, the right response to a problem can leave your customer reinforced in their good feelings about your business. At worst, a wrong response to the same complaint can lose you a customer, and all their friends and family as well, forever!
I think the reason for this is clear; we all know that even good businesses can make mistakes. But we judge the fundamental quality of a business by how it deals with its mistakes. Their reaction to problems tells us a great deal about the underlying attitudes of the business, and about how the management expects its employees to behave towards its customers.
There have been some terrible examples of bad responses to complaints. Probably the most publicised in recent years, and certainly the funniest customer revenge, concerned United Airlines. Here’s a link to a song and video on You Tube. If you haven’t seen “United Breaks Guitars”, please turn on your sound and click on the link! It’s a Master Class in how not to deal with problems, and it’s what I remember about United. This video has been viewed more than 7 million times; what a nightmare for the airline!
But. if you are lucky enough to live in Jakarta, and are interested in being taught English (or Bahasa Indonesia) by the team at Aim, you can be absolutely certain of three things. First, Aim’s people will all work hard to make sure your course runs perfectly, and that you meet your objectives as a result. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, if you are ever dissatisfied with anything, they’ll work even harder to put things right.
Thirdly, and finally, they will never, ever, ever break your guitar! That’s a guarantee.