more on professional service delivery missteps and the power of candor
Last week I wrote about the importance of owning the service delivery mistakes and missteps we make and take. This point came through to me again as I read this Fast Company blog commentary about the customer loyalty inspired by one airline pilot’s willingness to walk the aisles, extend a face-to-face apology and explain the reasons for his plane’s repeated runway stalls. While you’d hope that this would be a routine response to extraordinary circumstances, we all know it wasn’t. The leadership skills and candor that this pilot displayed against an all-too-familiar backdrop were exceptional. There simply aren’t a lot of people in authority positions who understand the power of this kind of candid, human-to-human connection and acknowledgement. Perhaps if more lawyers understood how to own up to weaknesses in their client services, you'd see fewer cases of the angry client syndrome featured in this recent article.
