I want to take a moment to talk about something that I have been thinking about after I posted, on Facebook, the meme about forgetting to place a cake order and wrote on top “Next time, don’t get caught swimming in regret.”
the meme I posted on Facebook
REGRET
Seems that regret, while a completely normal human function, is something that most people do not want to be called on or admit to anyone, let alone admit to themselves. That is all right.
Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have regrets. I am here to tell you that I am full of regrets.
I regret not spending more time with my family. I regret not being a better husband. I regret not being a better father. I regret not being a better friend. I regret not doing something about an injustice or two that I witnessed in my life. I regret not holding on just a little longer with a friend. I regret holding on too long with others. I regret not defending myself when I should have. I regret listening to the wrong people. I regret not listening to the right people.
See the list just goes on and on. Yet, there is a beauty to regret, yes, there is beauty in regret. In the past couple of years, I have grown, moved forward and freely admitted those public regrets, as well as my private regrets (to myself, of course). While most people announce their regrets while on their deathbed, when it is too late. I chose not to.
While we will never truly know the day and time of our expiration, I choose to do something about those regrets, right now instead of when it is too late.
Sure, some can do something about those regrets now but most people will wait until they can no longer do something and complete their time on earth full of regret and anger. Anger because they chose to waste their time holding grudges, internalizing their pain, lashing out at people, putting the wrong people or things above their family and true friends. They would rather spite loved ones because they think they can and are entitled to. They would rather belittle those that are not present because they believe it makes them look cool.
Yet, deep down they know they are hurting because of the regret. Regret based on knowing right from wrong yet choosing wrong because it is a quick fix, a temporary Band-Aid. Instead of working hard to make life better for themselves by fixing those regrets. Admitting regret can be a bitter pill to swallow.
At this point of my post, you are asking yourself, “Who does Dave think he is?”
Please ask that if you have not done so already. You are asking because now you are thinking about the regrets you have. You can choose to be offended. I know at least one individual will be offended. It might be someone whom I do not know or it can be someone that I have known for a very long time. Being offended is good, because sometimes those things that strike a nerve do so to get us thinking.
When we start thinking, we can start acting and when we start acting on our thoughts, we start getting results. Results that lead to minimizing regrets. Once our regrets are at a minimum we have grown as individuals.
Now to answer the question: “Who does Dave think he is?”
I am the person that regrets not writing this much sooner.
We can stop complaining or do it a little less. It can be done. We can complain and complain until we are blue in the face, that’s fine complaining is who we are, it is what we do. However, as a leader you cannot go around complaining because those that follow you will question what you do when it comes to complaining. Your followers will start to wonder if you complain about them to others. If you need help to stop complaining here are five tools to help you stop the complaining or at least keep to a minimum.
GO COLD TURKEY
Just stop! Yes, I know it is easier said than done but it can be done. People do it all the time. You have heard of Smokers, Drinkers, and Heroin users going cold turkey. Sure, it is a little difficult at first but they eventually break the habit. You can stop complaining right here, right now. However, you have got to want to change. You have got to want to stop complaining. Now here is a little something I tell people all the time, we are all human and none of us are perfect. We weren’t made perfect. However, the issue is know that you cannot go through life 100% complaint free. I try but it just doesn’t happens. So don’t worry if you slip and fall back into complaining mode. Pick yourself back up and try again. Remember, most alcohol and heroin addicts have to hit rock bottom before they realize they have to stop.
BE RESPONSIBLE
Own your mistakes. The first step to being responsible is self-respect. Begin by thinking highly of yourself and your abilities. All your abilities. Keep people in your life who respect you. Eject the chronic complainers. Let them carry their complaints elsewhere. Gather people in your life that like you and respect you. Remember it is a two-way street you have them around because you respect them. It is a mutual respect.
BE ASSERTIVE
Giving up complaining does not mean allowing yourself to become someone else’s doormat. Assertiveness is the way to tell others what your needs are and how these can be met. However, there will always be individuals who will see assertiveness (no matter how small or how large) as a personal attack.
KEEP MOVING FORWARD
When you keep moving forward you have less time to look back and complain about who did you wrong, who is crazy, who owes you money, who done you wrong, who was wearing what and stuff like that. By constantly moving forward you have less time to worry about others especially those that are the chronic complainers, the ones that live off of other people’s misery, the ones that would rather go make fun of people because it enriches their lives.
Keep moving forward and looking forward and soon you will have those that move forward as a habit and complain little to none all around you. Remember, like-minded people LOVE to travel together. Why do you think the old saying misery loves company is more often true?
BE MINDFUL
Be mindful of others. Some will see that you are not complaining or complaining as much and back off. However here is where the mindfulness kicks in. There are those that will bait you either catching you off guard or slowly reeling you in until <> you are caught and you start complaining.
Complaining is a part of life. It allows us to blow off some steam. It also allows us and opportunity share with others what we really feel however usually away from the people that we are complaining about. As a leader, you have to learn to keep your complaints to yourself. Your followers do not want to know you complain especially in front of them. Then they will start to wonder if you complain about them to others. So stop the complaining or curtail it as much as possible.
If you have ever spent more than five minutes working in customer service then you know that a customer complaint is not that far behind. It is just part of the job. It is a necessary evil. You would not have customer service without customer complaints they are going to happen sometimes for the most mundane little thing to something so serious you might have to call the police.
It is true, it happens but well there is no but you have got to deal with it has to get deal with it has to be done properly, it has to get that we dealt with immediately, it has to be dealt with was a sense of urgency.
It truly does because again, it is just that important to the customer just as it is important to the individual that is being complained.
Remember, customer service and customer complaints go together like peanut butter and jelly.
How do you deal with it? Well, we are going to talk about the five things we can do to address these issues and how to address them properly. How to take care of things so that they don’t grow into something bigger and it doesn’t turn your organization to some rascally care less, better still some could not care at all about the customer, only in it for themselves type of organization.
Now we are going to get these things, we are going to work on them and you are going to have to jump on it immediately because when a customer comes up and complains. First off, you have to know how to deal with it and who to hand off the complaint to because you at some point you might have to hand it off to your supervisor. If it is, you they are complaining on then it is going to have to immediately go to your supervisor. Doing this immediately creates a sense of transparency and creates a sense, to the customer, that you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about, and there is a process. It is going to give them an opportunity to feel like a something good is going to come out of this and that is a very good thing.
Now if it is you that gets to handle the customer complaint well, that is all right and welcome to the world of customer service. You know while we’re always taught the customer is always right, sometimes it’s the other way around but this is where you and how you handle these customer complaints can kind of turn that around a little bit.
The first thing you have to do is get the details not just the facts. I am talking the details get them. Get as much detail as possible. It will go a long way in helping to paint a better & larger picture of the entire situation.
Who knows it could just be the day they are having, the customer is having a bad day and decided to take it out on the first person that they ran into in your organization, through no fault of the individual. Then again, it could also be that one of your employees really, truly messed up and how are you going to deal with that but that is for a different time we are still dealing with customer complaints.
Get all sides of the story!
Do not just stick on one side, then just go ahead, and say, “You know what Joe; you really truly messed up because the customer said so.” No, get both sides or as many sides witnesses that there were any get all sides of the story and again that goes a long way to showing everybody not just the customer but the employee being accused that you’re going to be fair and you are going to be impartial because you demand to know everything that happened.
Now that you have everything, the information, continue investigating until the end. Review the transactions. If there is video get the video, if there is tape receipts get the tape receipts. Get everything you can even including video. If your facility has cameras outside get video. If shows how the individual walked in without any problems when they walked in. Did something happen outside the building that caused the individual to become upset? Then look at the employee that is being accused. Video goes a long way. Computer interactions go a long way. Tape receipts they go a long way, as well. Continue investigating until the end and then once you have done so deliver your results.
However, there is one thing you should never ever do or say. It does not matter who you are never do this thing: never promise anything to the customer. Never promise things like “heads are going to roll for this” or “someone will lose their job of this” because you do not know what is happening. It could be your job that could be you that is losing your job, it could be your head is going to roll because you over-promised something; you overstepped your boundaries, especially when you are not in a position to make those kinds of decisions.
Do not promise the customer anything. However, do promise you will look into it and deliver on that. That much they are expecting. You cannot promise anything other than you are going to look into what is going on and if there was a direct violation of company policy then appropriate action will be taken. You could say that but again you are not going to promise things like “heads are going to roll” or that “someone’s going to lose her job”.
As far as anyone knows the customer could be having a bad day, misidentified the employee and they are blaming someone completely different and yet you are going to tell them that that individual is going to lose her job. No. You do not do that. You never ever promise things like that. You can promise that there is going to be a resolution. Again, what if it just turns out all of the evidence points to one thing but the customer’s word points in a different direction, what do you do?
You do not. You bump it up, you send it up the chain of command until there is a resolution. Remember never promise anything especially when you are in a situation where you cannot deliver on that promise. If you do, I guarantee it will make you look bad, it will make the organization look bad and it will prove that customer’s point.
Again, handle all customer complaints swiftly, thoroughly, appropriately and give them the results. Give them an answer even if the answer is no answer. No matter, they need to be addressed because it is not only a reflection of how you are as a leader, how the organization deals with situations like this but it is also a reflection of the type of people the organization attracts.
Is just somebody that’s looking for trouble or is it somebody that just going about their business doing what they need to be doing and then something happens?
It is how you deal with it. At that point, you become a different type of ambassador for your company. You become the policy and procedure ambassador. What I am getting at is they get to see the other side of the store. They get to see the other side of the business. They do not only get to see the front end of the business everybody else sees but they now get to see the inner workings of the organization and how all of that functions.
They get to see the company deals with situations as they arise.
You become an ambassador not just on the front end of the house but also in the administrative side of the house.
When it comes to customer complaints, as a leader, you have a unique opportunity to show others what you are made of. Don’t let them down.
