What to Do When You Screw Up

January 20, 2008

Have you ever screwed up a project with a client? I mean really screwed up?

I know I have.

Well, something happened on Friday that serves as a pretty good example of just how to deal with it. At least I know I learned something.

You might be familiar with the firm 37signals. They’re a web design firm turned application service provider. They create web based software tools that help people run their businesses.

Their flagship product is Basecamp. If you’re working with clients, managing projects and aren’t using it… you’d better check it out. Because your competition probably is using it.

(I know I am) :)

On Friday of this past week, their services went down… all of them. I’ll spare you the technical mumbo jumbo, because it’s not really important. The point is, a million or so people could not access the data they need to run their businesses.

If you’ve ever had your website go down, you have a rough idea about what this would be like.

What usually happens in that instance?

Do you get communication from the provider? No. That’s the one thing that rarely happens.

You do get excuses. And you do get story after story about how your business is appreciated. Funny how they never mention that until there’s a problem.

Well… 37signals is different.

And their actions on Friday proved it.

Because they did something unheard of in the service business.

They stood up. They took full responsibility for what happened. And they offered to work with anyone who felt their financial well-being was harmed during the outage. The buck literally stopped with them. And they did all that even though the problem wasn’t (really) their fault.

AND they communicated. Every few minutes.

Here’s a quick shot of the status screen they posted their updates to every few minutes:

37sig.jpg

Simple. Clear. To the point.

So is that a smart strategy when you’re dealing with clients? To be honest and take responsibility for the problem?

You bet.

And it’s so rare that you could actually count it as a competitive advantage for your business.

I’ve been told stories about some of the firms I’ve played “clean-up” for. The ones who botched a project and then somehow tried to blame it on the client.

Every one screws up sometimes. (If you never screw up, chances are, you’re not taking enough risks for your client.)

So when a screw up happens, stand up and take responsibility for it.

Sure you might lose the client. But you might gain a whole lot of clients when they hear that you actually took responsibility for the results of your actions. The other folks they’re working with now probably aren’t doing that at all.


Posted by Jason | Filed Under Blog 

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