Ever heard the phrase:
“Your word is your bond” ?
I am sure you have, or at least some variation of it.
And for the most part I have to agree. When it comes to customer service, friendships and relationships, I consider my word to be precious. If I commit to something, I see it through.
But what happens when you just can’t do it?
Life has a funny habit of getting in the way sometimes. Circumstances arise where you just can’t honor your word. What do you do?
I recently encountered this situation when circumstances outside of my control took hold and I just could not meet a business commitment that I had made.
And man, did that bother me.
Oh, the guilt.
The feeling of letting someone down is truly horrid for me.
But… in this particular instance, there was nothing I could have done.
It took me a few days to allow myself to forgive myself… and then there was the repairing of the damage that needed to be done.
Here’s how I did that.
I took the time to put myself in their shoes. I tried to really get a grasp of what it was like on the other end of this experience, and understand the other point of view.
Then, I picked up the phone, and connected, empathizing and explaining the circumstances, and of course apologizing.
However, actions speak louder than words, so I followed up with an action plan on how to resolve this issue together and followed through.
We are all human, and mistakes happen. Circumstances outside of our control occur. The hardest part in all of this? Forgiving myself. After all, if my word is my bond and I break it, what do I have? But I am human. And life happens. Sometimes, totally rubbish situations occur, and we do the best we can with what we have at the time. And that sometimes means, letting others down, or breaking your word.
Time to forgive, empathize, apologize, repair and take action.
Have you ever let someone down, or had to go back on your word? How did you manage the situation?
TSo true! Apologising and taking action is critical, even if that action is calling back a customer and tell someone that their issue isn’t resolved but that you are owning it and updating on next steps and actions.
It’s something I’ve always done,(even though I’d cringe expecting to be shouted at by an angry or upset customer). I remember many years ago working in a service centre and coming back from holiday to find a customer had sent me a box of chocolates to say ‘thank you’ even though I hadn’t been able to fix their problem (no heating and hot water over a chilly New Year period no less!). I had kept the couple informed, had rallied round engineers to drop off heaters for them and arranged updates and a handover to a named colleague to deal with them whilst I was away. They recognised I’d done what I could and were grateful despite the company still not being able to resolve the problem.
Oh great example Sarah. Absolutely true.
I think this is an interesting and challenging post for us all. It’s horrible when you have to break your word – when we’re ill, or circumstances are beyond our control. Or even when it’s our fault – we’re all human, and we all mess up. But you are so right that the best thing to do is to own it, and do everything in our power to address the issue, rather than be defensive, or put our head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening (tempting those these are!). Thanks for your thoughts.
Agreed Ellen. Its horrid, but it happens. We are human.
Great post. It’s a real toughy to make it up but they say that we remember the people who got it wrong and fixed it way more than those who just delivered so we should use it as an opportunity to make it all good.
Oh, interesting Sarah. I suppose its probably true, it stands out more I guess. Would want to be doing it too often though 😉
I totally relate to this. On the rare occasions when I cannot deliver what I’ve promised or when I’ve screwed up, I really beat myself up. I need to remind myself that we are get things wrong sometimes, and I am no exception. Compassion and forgiveness is something I need to learn to give to myself more often. Thanks for the post.