Did You Forget About Me?

I recently received an e-mail from a client of mine. She had e-mailed me telling me that she wanted to take a break for awhile. My first response was to respond to her e-mail. Then I thought about it, and I decided that I should call her instead. I wanted to have an actual conversation with her about the situation, as I enjoy working with her and thought that a phone call was a much better way to handle the situation. What happened next was my worst nightmare!

Exactly ten days later, I got an e-mail from her that said, "Did you receive my reply back on the 5th? I didn't hear from you and am left wondering." Ouch! My heart raced as I had completely forgotten to follow through and call her. I was pretty upset with myself, and I am usually meticulous in following up with people. Now I know most of you can relate to this, as this is a typical experience for many of us. How many times has a sales person or business owner that you've had a relationship with failed to follow up with you, get back to you in a timely manner, or just forgotten about you completely? What were you thinking about when you were on the receiving end of that? I know what I was feeling at the time, and I was imagining what she was thinking, and it wasn't good! I also knew two things - that I had an opportunity to make things right, and that she was about to teach me a lesson that I wasn't going to forget anytime soon! So, here's what I did:

Admitted My Mistake

The first thing I did was to immediately pick up the phone, apologize, and admit my mistake. This actually started a great dialogue that ended up in a long conversation with my client, which was great!

Made It Right, Plus One

After I apologized and finished the phone conversation, I immediately sent my client a apology card, along with a Starbuck's gift card. I call this "making it right, plus one"! While it was probably enough to call and apologize, I wanted to take the time to make sure that my client knew, without any doubts, that I value her and her business.

Wrote This Article

During our phone conversation, I promised my client that I would write an article about the lesson that I learned! I did this because I thought it was a great opportunity to acknowledge her for allowing me another chance to continue our business relationship, share my experience with others, and hopefully remind people how important it is to follow up in a timely fashion!

Upgraded My Systems

As a Business Coach, I'm a huge fan of systems. Obviously, even though I have a strong follow up system, it failed me in this case. So, I made some changes and upgrades to how I handle e-mails and following up with things. This will prevent this from happening in the future!

Someone once told me that a smart person learns from their own mistakes, and a wise person learns from the mistakes of others. So, hopefully you will learn from me and not make the mistake of letting your follow ups "slip through the cracks". If you do, you can use my steps above to make it right and win over your customer once again.

Happy Selling!