About two weeks ago I talked to a customer. We agreed on something and he promised to call me back very latest by Friday. Well he didn’t.
In my mind, this person is now considered to be unreliable and the reputation of this person is gone. Why do people do that?
One option is that he just wanted to be ‘polite’. Instead of saying ‘no’ he talked nicely by promising to ring back. I never consider this as being ‘polite’, because finally the truth comes out and the ‘no’ is just dragged on to a later stage. The whole thing is actually more agonizing.
The other option is he looks at a promise ‘lightly’ and it is not so important to keep it or not. And this is something I totally disagree with.
KEEPING PROMISES IS THE FOUNDATION TO BUILDING TRUST. This can never be taken lightly.
In my mind, this person is now considered to be unreliable and the reputation of this person is gone. Why do people do that?
One option is that he just wanted to be ‘polite’. Instead of saying ‘no’ he talked nicely by promising to ring back. I never consider this as being ‘polite’, because finally the truth comes out and the ‘no’ is just dragged on to a later stage. The whole thing is actually more agonizing.
The other option is he looks at a promise ‘lightly’ and it is not so important to keep it or not. And this is something I totally disagree with.
KEEPING PROMISES IS THE FOUNDATION TO BUILDING TRUST. This can never be taken lightly.
Here is my view:
- Keep every promise.
- If you cannot keep a promise let people know before the deadline and offer another solution.
- If you don’t keep a promise talk to the person, apologize, discuss how to make up for it. Ask the other person if that is satisfactory to him / her. Unkept promises must remain very, very rare!
- Never make a promise, if you are not sure if you can keep it. Rather give yourself
more leeway by e.g. giving a more generous deadline.
- If you don’t want to promise, then don’t promise anything. Learn to say ‘no’ quickly.
- Here is a special situation. Sometimes we are under pressure and somebody else wants to force a promise from us. In this case, always promise what you can do. Do not promise a result if this is not totally under your control. Example: You are pushed for a decision but this decision is beyond your authority. In this case, you would promise to seek a meeting with your boss as fast as possible and present the case to him, tell him your recommendation, what should be done, and come back with a decision immediately after the meeting. If pushed further, just explain one more time that you can really promise what you can do. You can only make your best effort to convince your boss, be he is making the decision. You can't make a promise on his behalf.
Please treasure your reputation. Many kept promises build trust. One broken promise can destroy it.
- Keep every promise.
- If you cannot keep a promise let people know before the deadline and offer another solution.
- If you don’t keep a promise talk to the person, apologize, discuss how to make up for it. Ask the other person if that is satisfactory to him / her. Unkept promises must remain very, very rare!
- Never make a promise, if you are not sure if you can keep it. Rather give yourself
more leeway by e.g. giving a more generous deadline.
- If you don’t want to promise, then don’t promise anything. Learn to say ‘no’ quickly.
- Here is a special situation. Sometimes we are under pressure and somebody else wants to force a promise from us. In this case, always promise what you can do. Do not promise a result if this is not totally under your control. Example: You are pushed for a decision but this decision is beyond your authority. In this case, you would promise to seek a meeting with your boss as fast as possible and present the case to him, tell him your recommendation, what should be done, and come back with a decision immediately after the meeting. If pushed further, just explain one more time that you can really promise what you can do. You can only make your best effort to convince your boss, be he is making the decision. You can't make a promise on his behalf.
Please treasure your reputation. Many kept promises build trust. One broken promise can destroy it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment