Your client asked that the documents be sent overnight. He wanted his wife to have the papers in time for a loan closing the next day. Your administrative assistant put the documents in a Federal Express envelope and sent them off.

Unfortunately, she sent them via ground service rather than overnight.

The documents didn’t make it on time, and the client’s wife went ballistic screaming at her soon-to-be ex-husband.

The client, of course, called your office and started screaming at your administrative assistant.

He wanted the money back for the overnight mail fee. He insisted that it be credited to his account—pronto.

Your admin said she’d check with you and get back to him.

You were in trial, so it took her 48 hours to talk to you and get back to him. You, of course, approved the refund.

He still wasn’t happy, and ultimately, you lost him as a client.

How could it have gone differently?

In an ideal world, your admin wouldn’t have made the mistake. But mistakes happen. To some extent, they’re unavoidable.

Avoiding mistakes is the objective. After the mistake happens, however, the goal changes. Now we’re in recovery mode. Now we’ve got to acknowledge the mistake, take corrective action, and make it up to the client.

You can’t wait 48 hours to begin repairing the mistake. It needs to happen right now, and it needs to happen regardless of your availability.

I suggest that you give your team the authority to repair these situations immediately. Let them act during the first phone call. Let them act as soon as they understand what’s happening.

You’ve got to decide how much authority to give them. That decision needs to be made now, before the upset client calls about the mistake.

Obviously, you’d allow your team members to credit the client $20 for the mail charge.

What if the issue involves more than $20?

What about a potential client who calls upset about the advice given during an initial consultation? Would you allow your team to refund the $500 consult fee during that call? You need to make decisions about these issues in advance and train your team before the call comes.

Don’t wait for the issue to come up. You want your people ready to roll as soon as it becomes necessary to recover from an error.

Give your people the authority to decide. Empower them to solve the problem.  Let them make the client happy, and hopefully, you won’t end up losing the client.