I spent a long time in a fairly high-pressure corporate environment, dealing with some high-profile clients doing database, analysis and production work that was complex and fraught with opportunities for mistakes.
I made a lot of mistakes- especially in the first year or two as I was gaining experience. Are you familiar with the “ohnosecond”? It’s that brief fraction of a second when you suddenly realize you’ve made a BIG mistake. Your heart drops into your stomach and you pound your head on your desk hoping you’ll get a concussion and have to go to the hospital rather than deal with the consequences of your oversight. I’ve been there.
At first, my approach was to try and minimize, hide, and made excuses for mistakes that were made, but the further along in my career and experience I got, I realized through the guidance of those wiser than me that there was a better way to handle it.
Recently, over at Performancing, Sean posted about the pMetrics server move and the 48 hour delay in getting stats service restored. I was struck with his honesty about the role he played in the delay by “screwing up” the database move twice. He could have easily just said “the database move took longer than expected because of the distance between the servers”, for example, and never mentioned the mistakes he made. Does being honest about his mistake help or hurt his credibility?
I suggest that honesty and transparency about mistakes actually increases your credibility and builds trust with clients. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s just a fact of life. It’s how you handle the mistakes that makes all the difference. The best formula for discussing an error with a client (or anyone really) is as follows:
- Here’s what happened. Honestly, succinctly, but hopefully put in a way that does not make you look too stupid. Don’t say “I’m such an idiot. I forgot to double check that the file was in CMYK format before I sent it.” Rather, say, “In my effort to meet your deadline, I failed to double check the file format.”
- Apologize. Sincerely.
- Here’s how I’m going to fix it. Provide compensation (as Sean did), a refund, a solution that will meet the client’s needs as well as possible, etc.
- Here’s how I’m going to make sure it never happens again.
Of course, no matter how honest and transparent you are, continually making mistakes will cause you to lose the client. It’s no good if a client finds you perfectly credible if they doubt your ability. A good client will not expect everything to always go perfect, and they also know that even the best designers and service providers will make mistakes. They also know that the best designers and service providers know how to make it right when the mistakes happen.
Loved the post. Solid advice for me as I’m bound to make a lot of mistakes. Thanks
That was such a nice article.
I have been in the same shoes before. What matters is really honesty and gaining trust in return.
We are just humans and bound to make mistakes every now and then
I think it takes a lot of balls to admit to a mistake, professionally and personally, and I admire anyone who has the guts to take that path as it’s so easy to make something up instead. I’ve been on both sides – I’ve lied to cover mistakes up, not because I was corrupt or sly, but because I was scared of what the truth would reveal (about me).
I’ve also chosen to tell the truth, and though it’s lost me one or two friends/clients, I’ve had no regrets. It just felt like less of a burden to tell the truth than to think up different strategies to cover up my mistake/s (and to deal with the guilt of lying).
I still make mistakes after 4 years into blogging. Admitting them certainly is not easy but you’re right. It’s definitely the way to get trust. Being honest about a project before, during and after completion is also important.
Admitting self mistakes is good, is it really our mistake to begin with? I don’t encourage you to have a quarell. I believe what matters from here is the extent we submit to our clients. There are things we should apologize for and try to make up for them, and there are some things we should only listen with empathy and apologize, but no need to make up for them in any way
“We are just humans and bound to make mistakes every now and then”
This notion is kinda trap. It’s true that we can’t avoid ourselves from making mistakes. But there are foolish mistakes and there are smart ones. What matter the most isn’t the mistakes itself, rather it’s on how we deal with them. Are we stumble upon the same rocks over and over again? (reminds me on donkey)
Are we also become wiser from experiencing our mistakes? Because there are still many (including me sometimes
) who tend to run or avoiding the feeling of guilty, while infact that feeling is good for us so we can learn and improve ourselves. The feeling of guilty is the fuel to change!
I think you all have made some great points. We all try to refine the working process so that the opportunity to make mistakes is minimal, but they do happen. And I think professional honesty is the best way to admit your mistake, and eventually what it comes down to is how you are going to provide the solution. It is best to not focus on the problem, but how you are going to solve the challenge that is has presented, quickly!
Don’t worry, everyone makes mistakes sometimes. The most important thing is that you are honest about it.