During my attachment in March last year, I had an earful from my boss as I had caused a client to be displeased. As an Events Assistant, my job scope includes assisting my boss in planning and organising the catering for events. I remember vividly that it was during the last few weeks of my attachment, when my boss had asked me to liaise with a caterer for the catering of an event. Additionally, it was an important event as it was organised by one of our regular clients.
Following the request, I called the caterer and asked for their suggested menu list. As usual, I merely stated that the food catered should be halal certified to cater to the Muslims. After receiving the list and the quotation, I presented the information to my boss. Several days later, I received a call from an angry client who claimed that I was doing a poor job with the catering. He reprimanded me as I missed a crucial criterion, which was that the food catered have to be indicated with a healthier choice symbol. This eventually caused a slight friction between the client and my boss.
After the call, I felt embarrassed of my mistake whenever I had to face the client during meetings. As I reflected on this incident, there could only be two possible causes: my boss had forgotten to inform me of the crucial criterion or I had misheard the instruction given by my boss. I also learnt that it is important to ensure all requirements given by the client, including the minute details, had to be taken down to ensure a smooth event planning.
Dear readers, how would you have reacted? Would you feel wronged if you were put into my shoes?
Commented on:
Afifah
Shu Ling
Zakiyah
Dear readers, how would you have reacted? Would you feel wronged if you were put into my shoes?
Commented on:
Afifah
Shu Ling
Zakiyah
Hello Nadiah,
ReplyDeleteIt must be difficult being in events as you have such huge responsibilities! If I were to be in your position, I'll definitely feel like i've been wronged. Your boss should have been very clear. Did you clarify with him the instructions? Maybe then he will remember that he missed out the crucial criterion. I guess such miscommunication are bound to happen in a company! It's important to always clarify if unsure to avoid such mistakes from happening again. Anyway, did you manage to make changes to the catering prior to the event?
Best Regards,
Zakiyah
Hello Zakiyah,
DeleteThank you for your response. As the instruction was just to liaise with the caterer, I'm afraid I only mentioned about the Halal criterion to the caterer. At the end of the day, the blame is still on me as I was just an intern. Therefore, following the incident, I apologised to my bosses for causing such a mistake to happen. My boss had also immediately called the caterer to follow up on the new updates.
To avoid this from happening again, I was more careful when liaising with clients or vendors. I made sure that all details were clear and known to me before I proceeded to liaise with the parties concerned.
Hi Nadiah,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your incident on the blog. I understand how you felt at that point of time as I faced similar incident during my internship. Although it might not be your fault, the blame will be on you as you are the person-in-charge.
Hence, if I was you at that point of time, I would have taken the courage to clarified with my boss once again and made sure that everything was correct. However, if the mistake was on your boss, I guess I would be in the same similar situation as you.
As what Zakiyah has mentioned in the previous post, I guess such miscommunication are bound to happen in the working world. Do not take this incident to heart and take it as a learning curve.
Best regards,
Tricia
Hi Tricia,
DeleteI definitely agree with you. Even though it's unfortunate, miscommunications are bound to happen anywhere and anytime. However, as I was an intern during the incident, I did not clarify with my boss after the call from the client. I accepted it as my fault and apologised to the bosses for my mistake. My boss had also immediately called the caterer to follow up on the new updates.
To avoid this from happening again, I was more careful when liaising with clients or vendors. I made sure that all details were clear and known to me before I proceeded to liaise with the parties concerned.
Hi Nadiah, thank you for sharing your experience with us. Jeaine and I felt it must have been hard on you being reprimanded by both the client and boss.
ReplyDeleteIf we were in your shoes, we would take full responsibility for the mistake because we are the point of contact for the client. Regardless of any miscommunication that happened internally, it is still our responsibility to owe the client an apology and explanation.
As such, our first priority would be to attempt to defuse the anger of the client by demonstrating empathy and actively listening to his concerns.
Then, we would actively use "I" statements to apologise. For example, we would say things like "I am sorry for missing the crucial criterion", "I could have done better", or "It was my mistake that so-and-so happened."
We believe that by first acknowledging it was our fault, it would defuse the tension and eventually soften the stance of the client. It would also increase the credibility of our company as it demonstrates our integrity when we are willing to admit and apologise for our mistakes.
Nevertheless, we believe it was a learning experience for you and you will grow from this incident. Thank you.
Dear Nadiah,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this interesting scenario. In it you give clear, relevant details in terms of the unqiue problem issue. I appreciate the feedback you've received, too, and how the last peer team connected your experience to the DRB techniques in terms of how you might have defused the toxic situation and aplogized more convincingly. We're only missing your final follow up to the discussion as the last step for learning here.
Cheers,
Brad