Failure Is Simply The Opportunity To Begin Again.

It's interesting how common it is for most of us, (myself included), to fail to recognize and leverage this simple truth.  Instead, we protest and fight against even the most trivial of "failures".

Case in point, my father who is in his early 80's recently left a very nice jacket at a restaurant my family had frequented for the past 20 plus years as a "favorite". One which is located several hours from his home.  When he called,  the restaurant indicated there was no coat to be found. My dad then back tracked to where he had been earlier in the day, at my daughter's home and checked with her.  No coat.  Because my daughter lives within 30 miles of  this restaurant, and because she knew my dad had the coat on when he left her house, opted to double check with the restaurant; no coat.  Because I found myself driving near this town a few days later, I also called the restaurant.  Lo and behold; they did have the coat; fabulous!

The sad part to this story is upon reaching the  restaurant, an extremely grumpy gal who indicated she was the owners sister indicated..."no coat" as did two other employees.  My gentle  explanation that I had spoken with someone hours earlier, was met with a sign and a curt demand " Well, who was it?"  Fortunately,  yet a different staff member appeared on the scene and chimed in - "Oh hi! The coat is here, it's hanging in the office". Again, from my standpoint; fabulous!

Where I should have left well enough alone, I ventured to suggest, again very gently, and, emphasizing how appreciative I was that the coat was found, that perhaps the restaurant as a team might benefit from creating a communication method for lost and found items.

Whoa!  The fury unleashed by the owner's sister was astounding, insisting "they did have a process, a lost and found drawer by the cash register and a coat obviously would not fit in a drawer".   What surprised me was her inability to listen to the voice of the customer, in this case, me.

My parting comment was " Hey, that's great; sounds like you have a system! Maybe when an item is too large for the drawer, someone could just leave a note like "found a black suede coat, owner called and will pick up - it's hanging in the office". Based on the smile and respective nods from surrounding staff, there seemed to be agreement towards a new idea.

Based on the scowl from the owners sister, it's unlikely it will ever happen.

Here's this month's challenge to business owners and business professionals alike.  When you fail to meet a customer expectation, for goodness sake heed the words of Henry Ford and leverage it to an opportunity. In fact, how about a monthly challenge question for you or  each member of your staff.  What did you learn from your customers this month?

It's quite likely you can take what you learned and leverage it into a better process, service or value.