Our client was chosen to give a presentation at a prestigious developers conference. It was an honor for him, and he asked us to create a demo for his session. However, we had few free consultants and the conference date was rapidly approaching. He pleaded, and we agreed to do the best we could with what we had.
His session involved the unveiling of new cloud platform features. But those innovations were coming in hot, and they were unstable. Our demo scope increased with each newly released feature. When the platform worked, the demo looked great. But it didn’t always work.
Our client stood in front of the large audience as we nervously smiled from the crowd. A few minutes into the demo, a platform component didn’t behave. Our demo failed and our client awkwardly transitioned to prepared slides. Several in the audience made their way to the exit; it was a dumpster fire.
How do you handle things when they go horribly awry? In our case — as in most — no one party made all the poor decisions or was 100% to blame. We had a choice: to focus on excuses and others’ failures, or to take care of the emotionally charged situation.
We chose the latter, using the following tips.
Reach Out Quickly
The conference ended on a Friday and I flew home. As a general rule, we do not initiate emails to clients on a weekend. However, I sent a brief note early Saturday morning, asking if we could meet early the following week.
Time is more critical than having answers or a prepared response. The longer you delay reaching out, the more charged the situation can become. When you take the first step, you are indicating you care. The expression of that care can come later.
Lead with Humility
His jaw was firmly set, and a slight frown was upon his face when I entered his office. He stared keenly at me, perceiving my emotional posture. Would I try to lighten the mood with humor? Or had I come to defend our results?
Instead, I spoke sincerely and with confidence. Confidence in what I was about to say, not in our past results. I thanked him for meeting with me and let him know how much I appreciated him and valued our relationship.
Acknowledge the Impact
Before you dive into root cause analysis, share an understanding of the impact of the failure. Whether the impact was only 40% because of your behavior is immaterial. Why it occurred comes later. Show the other party you understand and empathize.
I expressed my understanding of the privilege he had been given to speak, and how this could jeopardize future opportunities. I also acknowledged the stress of having a demo fail in front of peers and a large audience.
By sharing this, I did not accept (or deny) responsibility for the consequences. I showed an understanding of how it affected the customer.
When you do this effectively, much of the air is released from the emotional balloon. When people are hurt, they want someone to understand the impact before they want a fix.
Express Sorrow
Understanding the impact is an important step, but it’s important also to express remorse. And that will mean saying, “I’m sorry.” This does not require accepting fault for all that occurred. I was sorry my client might not have another opportunity to speak at that event, and I told him so.
Own Your Issues
With clarity, speak of the things you did that contributed to the failure. Without excuses, and without mentioning failures of any other party. This communicates great respect, as you cared enough to analyze your role in the failure.
The client had put us under immense pressure and expanded the scope after our initial agreement. That didn’t matter. What mattered is that we didn’t speak up and warn him of the consequences. We knew we didn’t have our most experienced consultants on the project, and there were risks.
We should have spent more time on platform workarounds, or even faking things to appear as they should work. (Yes, it frequently happens in large events. If you don’t think so, just ask the Easter Bunny.)
We made mistakes, and I articulated our recognition of each of them.
One caution: sometimes a customer will seek to ease your burden for the sake of the conversation. Don’t let them make excuses for you. You can let them know you appreciate their sentiment, but you are committed to recognizing your shortcomings.
Make Things Right
Come prepared with a show of how important the relationship is to you. Err on the side of generosity. Resist the fear that this may communicate you are accepting more than your share of the responsibility.
With the conference completed, we had resources free. We offered three weeks of a top-tier team to rework the demo to be resilient against any platform failures.
You Got This!
Failures happen. They can fracture relationships, but they can also solidify them. It all depends on how you handle them.
Oh, and our client? He became one of our most loyal customers and a strong source of referrals.
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