Small business owners wear many hats. We’ve already talked about IT, customer service, business development, accounting etc. This week we’re going to talk about an entirely different one: Therapist. I use this term loosely as I have zero training and can often be heard asking people what their therapist thinks about what we’re talking about. Anyone who manages people though, knows that approaching those people with kindness and understanding will get you much further than anything else. We all have bad days sometimes and that can certainly affect our work. For us, if we’re having an off day, we might not pay attention to the clock and shortchange a client. This stinks because it means they didn’t get what they paid for and it looks like we were trying to pull one over on them. When I get a complaint like this, there’s a couple different ways to go.
First I could call up the dog walker and say the client told me they shorted the walk, I’m docking their pay and I never want to see it happen again. Of course there are less harsh variations of this but ultimately, it’s not that effective. Now, my employee will still make mistakes because they are human, but they’ll also do everything they can to hide them from me. Which means I will never be able to do damage control with a client because I’ll only find out something is wrong when the client tells me.
I could ignore it. This is obviously a bad idea. Whether the employee made a mistake or it was intentional, they need to know that someone is paying attention and they missed their expectations.
Finally, I could reach out to my employee and ask what happened and actually listen to their whole side of the story. Honestly, most of the time the answer is they weren’t focused, it was an accident and they’ll be more careful. All of my good employees feel bad about it and say they didn’t notice and it won’t happen again. It usually doesn’t. If it does it’s months, possibly years, later. Nobody is perfect.
Sometimes though, it’s something bigger. Some of my dog walkers may be going through a very hard time that I have no idea about. They don’t tell me their deepest secrets usually but sometimes when it affects their work something might come out. I once had a dog walker who I had historically gotten along well with, who had been working with me for several months, probably well over a year at this point, snap at me for something that was admittedly annoying (last minute schedule changes) but was something he didn’t usually complain about. While it was last minute, we essentially just swapped one walk for another and it was very out of character. I don’t remember exactly what my reaction was but I do remember trying to explain that it should have helped his schedule not hurt it but he couldn’t hear me. I don’t know what finally got through to him, whether it was something I said or if he just stopped and looked more closely but he apologized and told me he was having some problems in his personal life and that he wasn’t mad at us he was just mad. At that point, I told him we could help. I just needed him to tell us what he needed. We lightened his load a bit and gave him the time and space he needed to work things out. He still works here and is one of my best walkers. Now,if something is going on, he tells me. Then I can reach out to the client in advance and get ahead of a problem.
Of course, my dog walkers may remember these interactions differently, but this is what I strive for. I can’t fix everyone’s problems. I can listen though. I do want to be clear that while it’s important to listen to what people are telling you it’s also important to know where you stand. I know that everyone needs to have certain schedules and make a certain amount of money in their lives and while I do my best to accommodate them, there are times when I can’t. I think it’s just as important to be honest in these situations as well. I want people working here to be happy but if I can’t give them what they need, they never will be. That’s no one’s fault it’s just a reality. Treating your staff like people and not cogs goes a long way toward building a company culture you can be proud of. Listen to the feedback you’re getting and act on that. It’s much more effective to respond to a person than an infraction.