Failure Failures & Complaints as Part of Time Management

As good as you are to plan: Something will always go wrong. The fatal thing is that such failures usually only show up when something has gone wrong that often can no longer be changed. But how can failures be turned into successes?

What to do in the event of errors?

For example: Ms. F. has specialized as an editor in computer manuals and is paid by the hour. She always takes great pride in the orders fast and therefore inexpensive, but still reliable. Recently, however, her main client has often found errors in the books after editing.

Ms F. is angry with herself about the complaints that follow. “But I can't really do anything else,” she complains to her husband, “except that I just read the orders a little more carefully and longer and then more for that Money take".

How to deal with yourself in the event of failure

A crucial aspect of your self-organization is how you deal with failure yourself. No one likes to admit they made a mistake. Not in front of yourself and certainly not in front of others. One would rather appear perfect and flawless. It is therefore completely normal if People like Ms. F. first react angrily and try everyone Debt to dismiss. That's totally in at first Order.

But you don't just want to get angry, you want to know how to get out of failure Success can do. To do this, you must first analyze yourself. Therefore, spend a month carefully monitoring how you react to failure. To do this, create a table with three columns. Enter your failures in the first column on the left. In the middle column write what you do when you fail. Write down exactly what you think and in what words. For example, the first two columns could look like this:

Excuses - the solution to your problem

During the analysis, you may find that you particularly like to use sentences such as: “Yes, but I have…” or “Actually, I have already…” as a justification? These sentences usually contain the Solution of the problem, as the example of Ms. F. shows: she spontaneously found out what she was in Future can do better, even if she doesn't really want to see it herself yet. But through this failure, she realizes that she cannot keep up the usual pace of work and has to ask for more money for her work.

This is an important personal development. And to bring about such further developments, which is important for that Companys remains permanently on the market, failures are necessary, because people learn above all from their mistakes and bad experiences. In order to achieve this learning effect, you should now turn to the third column of your failure table: Enter here what you can do better in the future based on this experience (for the sake of simplicity, only columns 1 and 3 are shown in the following example ):

Learn from failures

When you're done with your overview, simply cut off the first two columns of the table and throw them away (you can also just fold them backwards). You can forget the mistakes you made and how you reacted to them, or at least you don't have to worry about them anymore. It is only important that you Head keep what is left, namely column 3 of your table: The things you have learned that you will do better in the future - and therefore to Success factor for your company.

Failures are important teachers and are part of your personal experiences. You, in turn, do this as a person unique and differentiate you from your competitors. Therefore, accept your mistakes and Things to Learn you out of it. This is an important success criterion for your company.

How to deal with customers in the event of failure

But when you fail, it's not just about what you learn from it. Unfortunately, failures are often not just you, but yours too customers affected. And they express their displeasure in complaints. But complaints aren't just negative: you often don't even know what your customers really think. If someone complains, it's a good way for you to find out how your service is being received - without having to spend a lot of money on a complex market study.

By the way: A Chinese proverb says: "Whoever flatters me is my enemy, whoever criticizes me is my teacher".

You should keep this in mind when others want to complain

A complaint gives you the opportunity to actively and immediately do something for the satisfaction of the other. Studies show, for example, that it is actually easier for companies to keep a complaining customer than to win a new customer.

The satisfaction of bosses, customers or colleagues is important: the happier a customer is, the greater their loyalty to a company. Satisfied customers tend to be less sensitive to price increases than dissatisfied ones and less receptive to competing products. And you are also interested in other company services. In addition, satisfied customers recommend you to others. If you also communicate the satisfaction of your customers to the outside world, for example through Advertising like “our customers love it”, create a positive image and offer potential customers an important one Orientation in a Competition. After all, companies with positive customer feedback also set standards for other companies and at the same time commit themselves to consistently good quality. That takes care of Trust.

The satisfaction of others is an important guarantee for your success

Therefore, always remember that the satisfaction of bosses, customers or colleagues is an important aspect of your success. Make sure others positive Gain experience with their work, for example through high quality, good value for money, good service, friendliness and reliability, especially when there are complaints.

If you Executive but afterwards really satisfied depends not only on you, but also largely on his expectations. If you exceed the expectations of other people, if they are satisfied, if expectations are not met, dissatisfaction is high.

Unfortunately, you can only control these expectations to a very limited extent, for example as an entrepreneur by making advertising promises that are as accurate as possible in advance or as a Candidate, if you im job interview stick to the truth. But customers in particular are nowadays confident and demanding because you know your rights and are better informed about prices and competing products, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to divide into target groups. Even regular customers, out of curiosity or boredom, can suddenly dare to try out another provider, even though they are satisfied with one company are. This danger is particularly present when companies do not have a clear profile and the offer appears interchangeable. And over time, customers may change their attitude toward a company simply because they have new experiences and use different standards of evaluation. This makes it difficult even for established companies to keep customers happy in the long run.

The fact that customers are satisfied with a company does not automatically mean that they always buy from them. But it helps if a company has a positive image, for example through advertising or special campaigns and with special features clear stands out from the competition: For example, if it is clear that you are the only or best provider of a product or service, customer satisfaction is only marginally important. Because this is only one, albeit important, factor for your success.

Use complaint management for efficient work

Because complaints are so important as a measure of customer satisfaction, many companies have specified exactly how to deal with customer complaints. In technical jargon this means: you have a standardized complaint management system. Good complaint management for companies does not mean that you will not have any more complaints in the future, so it is not an avoidance strategy. Rather, a company determines how its employees deal with complaining customers. This also prevents unnecessary queries and procrastination when things have to be done quickly.

A similar System they can also use it to deal with complaints of any kind about their work and use them to work more efficiently. It is important that you are friendly and polite when dealing with customer complaints, because you do not want to put off the complainer and, on the contrary, you want to receive important information. Her Objective In such a complaint discussion, it should be on the one hand to calm the other person down, to rebuild their trust in you and to keep them loyal to you, but on the other hand to receive information about what you can do better in the future so that you can make a difference out of it Strategy can develop. Both trust building and corporate strategy should actually be a matter for the boss, so it is not advisable to delegate complaint management to employees - even if the task initially seems unpleasant.

The right communication is important

Having complaints received from colleagues or employees also means handing over responsibility. Companies that use call centers give customers the impression that they are being played down. It is better to use a complaint to present yourself positively. Make other people complain by being available quickly and having clear responsibility light. When you delegate, your employees should competently and be trained.

It is crucial for the success of the conversation that you first find out what your counterpart really wants and where he or she is needs lay. Perhaps he fears financial disadvantage because he has opted for your service? Perhaps he is unsure whether he has chosen the right product/service? Maybe he just doesn't know enough about your work?

Example: Mr V. is IT-Adviser, On Customer calls to complain about the supposedly buggy new software and the sloppy work that keeps him from completing an important project. He angrily berated Mr. V. as an “incompetent idiot”. Mr V. listens calmly at first. With factual Ask he finds out that the customer has overlooked an important function of the software. Mr V. can help him immediately on the phone and the customer apologizes.

Signal compassion to other people

To do this, first let the other person finish speaking without interrupting and listen actively at first. Give your whole awareness , don't think about what you want to answer just yet. Show your interest and compassion - this can be done in five ways:

• Absorbing listening: With short or confirmation sounds such as “mmhh”, “aha”, “yes” you signal “I'm listening to you”.
• Affected, understanding listening: Show empathy according to the motto: “I know how you feel” or thank you for the complaint.
• Circumferential listening: You repeat the customer's statements in your words and clarify whether the conversation partners are on the same level of understanding.
• Consolidated listening: You summarize the statements of your counterpart again and thus ensure that you have not missed any information: "So it's not just about that, but also ..."
• Inquiry listening: You check whether you have understood everything correctly: “If I have understood you correctly, you mean…”.

The sound makes the music

Two heads, two opinions. But the unpleasant thing about complaints is often not that they happen, but how they are presented - namely usually correspondingly unfriendly. Understandably, this annoys you. Unfortunately, only about 20 percent of the conversation contain factual information that will help you. The remaining 80 percent are emotions. It is therefore no wonder that misunderstandings often arise, which make it difficult for you to find out what the other person wants and to remain objective yourself.

Try to ignore emotional aspects such as insults and unjustified statements and concentrate fully on the factual content: write them down and ask for time to think before you react. When you've cooled down, just focus on your notes. This allows you to remain factual. If you've done this a few times, you get exercise in overhearing emotional attacks and can remain calmer.

Calm other people with questioning techniques

If you have to react immediately: Use questioning techniques to bring the complainant down to a factual level. Only with the help of targeted, friendly questions can you find out what your counterpart actually wants. IT-Berater V. from the example above was able to find out where that was with the following questions Problem his customer really lay.

• Open question: "How did this situation come about?" or "Tell me exactly what happened."
• Suggestive question: "Surely you can imagine that it is a little difficult to help you via remote diagnosis?"
• Targeted factual question: "Which functions of the software have you tried out so far?" or "What problems do you have exactly?"
• Closed question that only allows a yes or no answer: "Did you click this button?"
• Alternative question: "Would you rather use this or that setting as a basic setting in your software?"
• Rhetorical question: "This naturally raises the question of whether the software manual was really written in a user-friendly manner?"

Isolate the complainer. So he does not get a special function and others are protected from "risk of infection". Because: Complaints are presented in aggravated manner if Audience is included and also received negatively by others. Offer the abuser a seat. Sitting down is harder than standing up.

React thoughtfully

Now the reaction follows. But be careful: the intensity and urgency with which some people complain quickly leads to hasty and panicked promises that cannot be kept. You can only react appropriately if you know what is really going on. You only help the other person if you promise something that you can keep. Mr. V., for example, was tempted at the moment to visit his customer personally to help him on site. But he has other equally important clients so he doesn't have time for another visit and helped the client over the phone but took care of the matter immediately. In this case, he reacted optimally. In responding to the complaint, he adhered to the following Regulate held:

• Tell the customer that the complaint has been recorded
• Apologize for the reason for the complaint, even if you cannot help it personally
• Stay calm and polite, don't be abusive
• Always remain objective and do not reply to aggressive accusations
• Avoid discussions, arguments
• No killer phrases like "that doesn't work that way"
• Under no circumstances should you accuse the customer of incorrect handling
• Avoid excuses or blame on third parties. The customer is not primarily interested in the cause, but in how the problem can be rectified as quickly as possible
• Resolve the complaint as soon as possible, or, if that is not possible, personally ensure that the first measures are taken. Give the customer an appointment by when the process will be completed. Complaints must always be dealt with urgently. Inform the customer immediately if there are delays
• For the time being, only promise as much as can be safely kept. Complaints are non-compliance with the sales promise, so a second promise must be kept
• Have replacement products or alternative solutions ready in the event that a quick settlement is not possible
• Afterwards, ask the customer whether he is satisfied with solving the problem in this way

Set up an information system for the systematic recording of complaints, evaluate them regularly and think about how to resolve them alone or with your employees.