I was at a locally owned restaurant when I was reminded of the unknown, unintended and/or ignored variables that can throw a wrench in a client or customers experience. Here’s a story about that experience and how you as a manager can take on the challenge of making it right and keeping a long term and loyal client.

What happened?

I noticed a nearby customer grew more and more angry as she and her party waited for lunch. They sat outside on the patio of the restaurant on a cold blustery New England afternoon. She had two dogs who were attached by their leashes to a flimsy iron table.  The dogs were well behaved but one customer triggered them to sprint towards the front door howling. In their excitement they knocked all the drinks off their owner’s table and caught the woman’s legs tightly which made her wince in pain. At that point she stormed into the restaurant enraged and demanding her money back.

When the woman came back she proclaimed to the entire patio “I asked them why our food wasn’t ready and they just told me it takes a LONG time to prepare. Crepes take a long time to prepare? Give me a break! At least I got our money back.” and then the party left.

I was surprised by her assessment of the manager’s reaction, but I had a front row seat to all the variables that got this customer to the point of asking for a refund.

Unknown variables cause nasty pitfalls.

The manager had no idea about what his customer went through.

• When she arrived they didn’t know they had to walk into the restaurant to order first. They waited 20 minutes in the cold before they realized they needed to walk in to order.
• Over the course of an hour there were several incidents where the dogs became excited and she spent energy managing that excitement.
• The waitress constantly walked by and would say “It’s almost ready.” or completely ignore customers. Neither worked well.
• The customer’s personality was strong. A positive strong, from my short time I observed her I felt she was confident, outspoken and tough. She wasn’t going to be silent about poor service.
• The tipping point in my story, spilled water and agitated dogs.

Should the manager be expected to know about all of this? Do the variables justify her reaction? Absolutely not, but he could have handled it better by using the following system.

Managers’ reaction. How to empathize with clients and turn complaints into satisfaction.

It’s important to listen, apologize and try to make it right instead of assuming an unreasonable complaint or a feisty personality just approached you.

• Listen. Don’t interrupt, don’t make up an excuse, simply listen and process what is being said. You don’t have to agree with it but you do need to understand what they’re saying so you can fix it.
• Apologize, tell them you’re sorry about the impact the situation had and mean it. Swallow your pride, you have no idea what variables are affecting them. Don’t take it personally, their frustration has nothing to do with you.
• Tell them there’s no excuse but if they want to know why your team had a challenge that you can give them more information about the issue. Remember, no excuses! If they don’t want to hear why, then don’t tell them. It doesn’t matter, it’s not a quest for justice, you’re trying to keep a customer.
• Tell them how you’re going to fix the issue then make it happen and apologize one more time.

Have you ever considered the client experience pitfalls your customers face? How do you deal with those challenges, keep your cool and empathize in a time of distress?

If you’re a small business and you’re not familiar with 37signals.com they have a fantastic, simple and affordable set of web applications for small organizations.

We use Basecamp at CPA Site Solutions every day to manage projects for accountants, so when we heard 37signals created a book we had to check it out.

When you finish a book that inspires you the next step is to pull away a few gems to apply in your organization or daily routine.

Here are 5 actions I’ll be applying in the next week.

1. The tools don’t matter, what you do matters. Don’t get hung  up on what version of software you’re using or caught up in a flashy new tool you wont use in two weeks.

2. Inspiration is perishable. If you have a great idea, start working now before it rots. Basecamp is perfect for this. Set a milestone and make action steps that you can accomplish in the next two weeks.

3. Scratch your own itch. Make  products or software that you would use. Keep it simple.

4. Out-teach your competition. Create tutorials for your products and services. Share the tools you’re using with clients. Competitors can copy your feature list and tool offerings but they can’t emulate education. That takes genuine thought and effort.

5. Meetings are Toxic. I spend a large chunk of my week in meetings. This section made me uncomfortable, and when you’re uncomfortable it usually means there’s room for improvement.

• The cost of a meeting is the time taken away from each person in the meeting. If 10 people attend a 1 hour meeting, that’s 10 hours of productivity taken away. Only invite those who need to be there and contribute.
• Always email an agenda to your team before the meeting.
• Stick to the agenda.
• If someone goes too far off-topic bring them back to an agenda topic.
• Create action steps for any solution to a problem that pops up and make it due in the next two weeks. If it’s not done, or can’t be done in two weeks then it probably wont get done.
• Set a timer. When the timer goes off the meeting is over, no exceptions.

Overall, a fantastic read. You can get through it in about 2 hours, it’s worth the time spent.

You can pick up a copy here: http://37signals.com/rework/

I just finished reading Rework (review inbound soon) and their section on hiring resonated heavily with me.

Often, cover letters appear as an afterthought when they’re one of the most important parts of your application process. Too often your resume gets the most attention but says the least about what you offer to an organization or why you’d be a great fit.

Here are a few tips to get you by a weary part time small business HR person and into the interview room.

• If you found your cover letter by copy and pasting a sample after a quick Google search chances are you wont get noticed.
• If your cover letter looks like you simply pasted the employer’s name into a template with generic content you wont get noticed.
• Don’t just tell them what you’re interested in or why you’re great, tell them what you can offer the organization. How are you going to apply your skills to the position?
• Did you mention anything about the position? If your cover letter has no relation to the job posting other than “I would be a great fit for X position.” go back to the job posting and pick out specific needs the employer has and how you can address them.
• If your objective is essentially  “I want to use your company as a stepping stone.” an employer  wonders “What’s wrong with our organization?”
• If an employer posts content in their job listing about their team and culture and you choose not to read it or mention it in your cover letter you’ve squandered an invaluable point of conversation. Refer to the job posting and the companies website! Mention things that resonated with you and why you’d like to be a part of the organization. Talk about what you can add to the culture.
• If you choose not write a cover letter, an employer might choose not to open your resume.

Writing a good cover letter is challenging, but if you read and process what’s in the job posting and show how you can specifically address an organization’s needs you’ll get noticed.

If you need help and you’re looking for feedback, don’t hesitate to send a sample of your cover letter and resume and the job your applying for to jamestourville@gmail.com

If you’ve ever failed at delivering a project or completing a task you’ll be left asking yourself “what went wrong?” Constantly reminding yourself of these four steps makes pushing through a project and seeing it to the end a reality.

1. Awareness
2. Ownership
3. Planning
4. Execution

I’ve used a simple project goal of reading a book to illustrate how to move through each step and how you might get stuck.

1. Awareness

Awareness is possibly the easiest step to get past. It’s simply realizing you have a goal you want to accomplish.

Ready for the next step:

• I haven’t been reading.

Stuck:

• I don’t need to read books. Self improvement is pointless.

2. Ownership

Ownership can be a tough step to get past if you attribute outside influences to why you can’t accomplish a goal. You know you need to make a change but do you own up to why you’re having a challenge?

Ready for the next step:

• I haven’t finished this book because I didn’t schedule time to read it.

Stuck:

• I don’t have time to read. My family/work/home responsibilities distract me too much so I can’t find time.

3. Planning

Planning is simply scheduling and tracking the time it takes to make a change. It’s all about finding systems that work for you.

Ready for the next step:

• Blocked out 30 minutes in your calendar to read. Scheduled a 30 minute lunch break to read while eating. Blocked out 2 hours over the weekend to read at a favorite coffee shop.

Stuck:

• I can’t schedule a time to read, I have to be in the right mood. Using a calendar to schedule reading feels like too much of a commitment. I just read when I feel like it.

4. Execution

Execution happens when you deliver by following your plan.

You delivered!:

• You finished your book.

Stuck:

• I scheduled time to read but I didn’t use it.

If you’re still stuck you probably wavered on a specific step or reverted to a previous step. Stick with it, be mindful of these four steps and you’ll deliver your goals.