Where are my 36 oysters?

How to make mistakes and still thrive in business?

A small business owner made "the biggest mistake" of his career and I was standing next to him witnessing it. We could all just feel the shame washing down on his body.

The fishmonger on the Sunday market had mixed up the order. The client arrived and he had already sold the 36 oysters to somebody else. The client had called on Friday to confirm the order and passed by the stand the day before to make sure she would get her products. She had guests arriving and she wanted to serve oysters. She asked several times "why did you not ask the name of the client?"

The fishmonger and his twin brother had opened the oysters to the other client and sold them. When they realized that they had sold the oysters to another client, they could not believe this mistake and repeated that it had never happened to them before.

That was not a relief nor a solution for the client. One of the fishmongers started phoning around in panic. There were no new oysters to be found this time of the day.

We all make mistakes. We are all human. The words a customer wants to hear in this situation are:

"I'm sorry. I was wrong."

Luckily another client passed by and told that at the other fishmongers stand 50 meters from here there are 36 oysters waiting and the client did not pick them up.

What are the chances that 2 people would put the same order for the same product for the same day and then go to the wrong fishmonger?

Say (I know it's hard!) these 2 sentences "I'm sorry. I was wrong." and find the quickest way to recover the damage. In the end it all worked out well!

What more could we do to make it all good?

Which words would you use?

I have noticed that people are more stressed and affected by the second lockdown due to COVID-19. The social isolation is taking it's toll. We will all get out of this together!

#covid19 #mistake #strongertogether