Episode #3 - Taking the responsability for a team member's mistake in front of a client

Written by Jerome LABASTIE

Hello and welcome to Tricky Management Situations !

In this series of articles, Onirio explores, for you, all those tricky, even improbable (and yet real!) situations that the manager's job can throw at us.

In each episode, you'll find tips on how to step back and manage your problems 😉

In previous weeks, we have explored various themes with you:

We hope you enjoyed it 🙂

If you haven't already done so, you can also :

Today's Struggle: How do you take responsibility for your team's mistakes when dealing with a customer?

You're managing a team and one of your clients calls you, noticeably irritated. They received a delivery prepared by one of your team members... a week late, and some products were missing. They filed a complaint with the customer service, which hasn't provided a satisfactory solution yet. Up to the client's call, you were completely unaware of the situation...

How do you respond to the client? What do you say to the involved parties?

 
 

⛔ Mind the mistakes!

It's never pleasant to discover a problem in this manner, and you have good reasons to be upset.

So, in front of the client, remain composed to avoid reactions that could only worsen the situation, like:

  • Denying the problem: "I'm very surprised, my team is beyond reproach, you must have made a mistake in the order, right?"

  • Blaming your team without taking responsibility for the problem: "I wasn't aware of it, it was the preparation team who screwed up".

  • Finger pointing a specific person without acknowledging the failure of the process: "ah, it was Cyril who handled your order, you were out of luck...".

  • Leaving the customer without a solution: "I can't help you, just wait for customer service to reply".

1️⃣ Take immediate action to resolve the issue with the team

The primary priority is handling the immediate crisis, which means quickly resolving the client's problem

 
 

To do this:

  • Listen carefully to the customer to understand the situation precisely

  • Apologize to your client and detail your action plan

  • Gather the team to identify measures to solve the problem

  • Ensure follow-up with the client to make sure the solution is satisfactory

With the problem sorted, the most crucial part remains: ensuring it doesn't happen again!

2️⃣ Blame the process, not the people

So yes, identifying and punishing the guilty is a human reflex, but in reality it's not very constructive...

If we want to prevent the situation from happening again, we must first seek to improve the process by addressing two questions:

  1. Why did the malfunction occur?

    This involves understanding in detail what happened and the causes of the issue(s). Analyzing the problem's causes will help find solutions to improve the process.

  2. Why didn't anyone detect it?

    A question rarely asked but of utmost importance! Because yes, even if one person made an error, it's the client who noticed the problem. How embarrassing!

    By analyzing why the problem wasn't detected, solutions can be imagined to ensure an error is spotted and corrected before the client notices! That's better, right?

🦹 And if the mistake is deliberate and malicious?

Earlier, we said, "blame the process, not the people." All right, but what if you find out that a team member deliberately chose not to follow operational procedures or safety rules?

Here, you're dealing with a different managerial act: correcting a team member or even considering disciplinary action. 

And we'll explore that in upcoming episodes of Tricky Management Situations 🙂

 
 

See you soon for the next episode!

In each episode, Onirio explores a managerial situation and gives you advice on how to take a step back and adopt the right reflexes!

What's next? Telling a colleague he talks too much

To find all the episodes already published, go to here !

To discover discover upcoming management challenges, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page or subscribe to our mailing list below.

 
 
 

Have you experienced managerial difficulties? Inspire us!

We're sure you've been in plenty of situations that would merit an article 😉. And we're always looking for inspiration for our next episodes. So drop us a line with a description of your troubles! We'll be delighted to explore your situations!

 

Onirio 's 💙 exploration of this management galley was brought to you by Jérôme Labastie.

Jerome LABASTIE
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Episode #4 - Telling a team member they talk too much
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Episode #2 - Presenting your company's strategy to your team when you haven’t understood it yourself