Oops... I made a mistake!

Everyone makes mistakes from time to time and it is pretty normal, mistakes are a part of our working process. However, there are different points of views regarding the mistake-making. Some of them tell us no mistake at all, some state that making small mistakes can help you to improve your relations with people; the other tells that making mistakes is normal but we have to work on reducing their number.

As for me, I support the last point of view, especially, if we speak about customer service. The customers expect a perfectly done work from us but a human factor exists everywhere. Here I want to quote my ex-colleague:

"If the person makes no mistakes it means he/she does nothing".

You can use this phrase if you are blamed by your customer. :)

We also have to remember that a lot of factors can provoke a mistake-making situation. They can be divided into 2 categories: the inner and the outer ones.

The inner factors are related to everything that influences us inside the company, like a stressful working atmosphere, poor working conditions, working procedures that are not organized well, etc. They constitute 70-80% of all mistake-triggering factors. Imagine that the room you are working in is too hot, or something is wrong with your email box settings and you start to receive 100 emails each 5 minutes and only 5% of them are intended for you, or you are going to do work with no idea how to do it. I can even give my example. I made only 3 mistakes in 3 years while working for the company with automated working processes and 20 mistakes in 2 years working on the companies where the working procedures were created again and again with every new coming employee.

 The outer factors are those which are not related to the “company life”. For example, health and family issues, bad weather. They constitute only 20-30% of all factors. But, if some of them happen then all the working process can be spoiled. Just remember ourselves when something more important than work is happening in our lives. Having an idea of the mistake-provoking factor will help you and your manager to cope with the negative situation.

What if we made a mistake while working with your customer? There is a simple algorithm of action that should be taken in this case. Apologize, correct your mistake immediately and take measures not to make the same mistake again. Avoid lying and trying to shove the responsibility on the third party. If the lie is revealed, this can ruin your customer’s trust.

Our attitude toward mistakes plays also a very important role in our work. Making mistakes is not something pleasant. We are afraid of being derided. However, it is vital to avoid going into a panic after realizing that we made a mistake. Otherwise, there is a risk of chaos. Remember that in most cases there is an exit from a difficult situation and if it doesn’t exist then don’t worry as we can’t do anything anyways. :) so, no panic.

One day our general manager’s teen son came to our company for summer practice. His duty was to put the goods into boxes and to write packing lists. This process was not automated so the packing lists were prepared manually. And the possibility of making mistakes was high. He brought me my packing list and said: “Please check.’’ I checked and found 2 small mistakes. I told him: “Look, you made a mistake here and here”. His reply surprised me: “Ah, only 2 mistakes, that means that I did my job great!” He said it with no confusion. He was aware of what he was doing and understanding that it was a good result for a trainee who got to work a week ago. He was still a teen but his attitude to mistakes was better than a big number of grown-ups have.

So I wish all of you such an attitude to mistakes as this guy has. And a small reminder in case you made a mistake:

1.      Apologize if your mistake harmed your colleague's or customer's work.

2.      Correct yourself.

3.      Understand the reason why you mistook.

4.      Take measures not to make the same mistake again

5.      Take a note of the mistake you made if necessary. It can help those who will work with the same customer after you.

Regards, Kseniia Aslan