In her June 16th article on The Whale Hunters blog, Dr. Barbara Weaver Smith reminded me of the importance of doing what you promise, what I call getting it right the first time around. Barbara’s story touched some of my own raw feelings about bad performance or a betrayal of trust. Companies touting quality and then delivering less are prime offenders.
Dr. Smith’s joy of creating something luscious for dinner was interrupted when she found that a premium grocery store had sold her husband rotten potatoes and mushrooms that were unfit to eat. She explains, “From a very expensive, high-end so-called “luxury” grocery story, I had two high-priced items on the same day that were unfit to eat.”
Despite the apologies and the manager’s gracious attempts to make her happy, Barbara raises the crucial question:
“So do we ‘trust’ them? The answer is unequivocally NO. Trusting them to rectify their mistakes is nowhere near to trusting them to deliver fresh, edible produce in the first place. When I shop in a high-priced store whose brand is all about superior quality, then superior quality is what I expect.”
She then makes an even more powerful point:
“There is a big difference between MAKING IT RIGHT after a big screw-up and DOING IT RIGHT from the get-go.”
Who is responsible for a bad product? Ultimately, it’s the executive who owns or runs the company and all the people in the chain that purchases, displays and sells it. There’s a clear connection between consumer satisfaction and what the consumer is led to expect. While academics tell their students, “it’s okay to make huge mistakes as long as you learn from them,” even little flaws like a smelly potato can destroy a business relationship.
I’d go so far as to say that no leader is worth his salt, unless he can deliver the results that are promised. Getting it right starts with the expectations you create, the implicit contract between seller and buyer that’s transmitted in what you say directly or in any form of media.
Are all the people on your team looking for the smelly potatoes? What is the ideal consumer or client experience? Where are the gaps: the unanswered phone, the elegant jacket that turns out to be highly inflammable, the out of stock complaints? It’s good business to get it right, out of the gate. Cleaning up the mess doesn’t restore the trust lost in a bad experience.
