Yesterday, I made a mistake.
And AI called me out on my bullshit.
I had to call a customer and tell them they were right and I was wrong.
I thought I told a customer the quote was $533 for a house cleaning.
I charged their card $533.
The customer called me and said I quoted them at $433 originally.
$100 less!
My initial reaction was the customer was trying to take advantage of me.
This should always be something you think about as a business owner.
It’s easy to be taken advantage of and it’s very hard to hold your ground when you believe you’re right.
I didn’t care about losing the $100.
I cared about letting a customer take advantage of me and my small business.
(which unfortunately has happened)
I apologized to the customer for the miscommunication but I calmly stated the final price would be $533.
(I patted myself on my back for holding my ground)
The customer's voice sounded disappointed but they didn’t dispute any further.
After hanging up I remembered my AI bot sends me a summary of every customer call.
So I searched for the conversation....
And crap…
The AI bot clearly had me quoting the customer $433.
I was wrong.
I had already settled with the customer for $533 and the customer would never know my AI bot caught my mistake.
I promised myself I would “do the right thing” when running this business.
I promised myself I would treat customers how I wanted to be treated.
So, I put my tail between my legs and swallowed my ego.
I called the customer and told them I was wrong and they were right.
They obviously appreciated the call.
There is a lot to learn from this tiny lesson.
On the one hand, I was very proud of myself for standing up for what I thought I said.
This is something I am working on personally.
I like to please everyone.
It’s caused me to give out more discounts than I want to admit 😶
Should I have just given up and told the customer they were right from the get go?
I do operate by “the customer is always right”.
The $100 really didn’t matter at the end of the day.
Here are the lessons I am taking away…
It’s ok to stand up for what you believe to be right and to hold your position strongly (but kindly).
But as soon as new information is discovered that changes your position, you need to act on it immediately.
I don’t see this happening a lot in this world we live in.
From a practical standpoint, I am starting a new policy where the customer is always right up to X amount.
Meaning I won’t dispute anything a customer says as long as it is below a certain $$ amount.
Say what!??
Won’t I lose money and be taken advantage of?
I am sure someone will take advantage of it but it won’t be the norm.
The Ritz famously allows employees to spend up to $2,000 per guest to resolve an issue or enhance the guest experience.
Why they do this?
Empowers employees to act quickly.
Reduces friction in guest service.
Turns problems into loyalty-building opportunities.
Yes, this is a bougie AF example but it’s a really good practice to operate by.
As we grow this will become more and more important.
Coincidentally, I empower cleaners find 1 extra thing to do that takes less than X minutes.
I still pay the cleaner for their time and I don’t charge the customer for it.
It’s a surprise and delight feature.
Cleaners get paid for going the extra mile and customers get a nice surprise.
It’s a win win!
Here is a small example, it doesn’t need to be fancy 😉
I just enabled recordings/transcriptions as I made a lot of mistakes over the phone as well.
Love the ideas to incentivize more surprise and delight details -- takes a few moments but makes all the difference.