
Relationships both business and personal are based on trust, the trust that you will keep the promises you make, regardless of the size of the promise, unless you are a politician where you will have five years for the public to forget whether you kept their promises or not. Businesses, however, need to deliver on their promises, not just at the start of the business relationship but every time.
We will look at this topic under the following headings, What is a promise, Acknowledging slip ups, Learn to say no, and Learning from slip ups.
What is a promise? In any interaction with a client, whether it’s a telephone call or receiving an order, promises are constantly being made. Examples; if you receive a phone call from a client and you don’t have the information required, you tell the client you will find the information and call them back in ten minutes. Another example would be, if you received an order and you send an acknowledgement that you will deliver the goods December, in both scenarios you are making a promise.
To put it in one line, a promise is made when a client expects you to complete any task that satisfies their needs.
Acknowledging slip ups: There will be times when events outside of your control prevent you from keeping your promises. In these situations it’s always better that the client hear the information from you prior to them finding out for themselves and you receiving that hair drying phone call.
Using the examples above, if you don’t have the information within the time given to the client, give the client a call and tell them when you will have the information.
In the example of receiving an order, you find out that some of the items will not be ready in time to ship with the rest of the order, you call the client to inform them of what items will be late, they may have a customer who is depending on them and this will give them the opportunity to find a replacement or forewarn their client of the delay.
Learning to say no: Having an accurate production schedule and to-do list is essential in business; these will allow you to make the promises that you are sure you can deliver on. It is better to turn away business if you only have the resources to disappoint them. Late deliveries create negative word of mouth comments that any business is happy to live without.
Learning from slip ups: Every broken promise is a chance to put in place a procedure to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. You may have lost a client but you’re making sure that other slip ups are prevented; this will ensure that present and future clients are going to be satisfied with the service they are receiving.
In business, “if you don’t keep the small promises now, you may never get the opportunity to keep the bigger ones that bring home the cash.”
The mantra “if you make them, keep them.” is at the heart of every successful business.
