As I stood in line for my daily shot of caffeine, a guy walked in the door with a coffee in his hand. He sorta
Again – she had the opportunity to apologize but failed again – saying, “OK – I will remake it for you. They must have not included the caramel.”
Now, the funny part was that there were only two people working – she, as the coffee barister and the person working the window – which means she was the “they.” With that, the conversation took another turn. Instead of taking responsibility for the mistake, she was blaming others for the problem.
In a workshop recently I had an employee tell me that she did not think she should ever say she was sorry because that was admitting that the company had done something wrong.
Here’s the question of the day – do your employees feel the same way? Is it OK for them to take responsibility for mistakes? Do they have permission to say they are sorry? If I were your customer – and I walked in and said that my coffee (or product/service) was not the right one, would your employee instinctively say, “I’m sorry” and then attempt to solve my problem? I hope so! You should know so!