If you travel as much as I do, you’re bound to be a frequent customer at the dry cleaners. Since my move to Sugar Land, I found a cleaning business conveniently located on my way to work; they are very efficient and have been a delight.
However, upon closer inspection, a shirt of mine was damaged by the cleaners–bummer, it was one of my favorites, an UnTuckIt shirt I wore often. I returned it to them and spoke to the owner; we went over the shirt damage, and while she asked good probing questions, she never indicated they were not at fault with the shirt.
This is in stark contrast with my previous experience with a South Georgia cleaner who treated me like a cheat and miscreant over a similar issue. She finally agreed to “look into the issue and get back with me.”
Luckily, she did; the owner called me about a week later and asked questions about how long I had owned the shirt and how much it cost. I gave her the information and she thanked me, saying again how she was sorry this occurred and she would make it right. What more can you ask for?
Errors and mistakes happen, and If you determine you are wrong, you say you’re sorry, beg for forgiveness and ask what you can do to resolve it. As I have written before, you should ask the offended party what will make it right, as most people are reasonable and will not ask for a ridiculous accommodation. In many cases, what will “make it right” for someone is less than you are willing to do, making it a win-win. Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about the whole situation.
However, the weeks went by, and I was always in a rush when I went to drop off and pick up clothes, so I neglected to ask about the damaged shirt. Then, I forgot all about it for several weeks, until I went to get that shirt from the closet and remembered why it was missing; so, one Saturday I went to the cleaners to follow up.
Here is an insight to my thinking; I determined up front that this was not a situation to go in guns blazing. In fact, there are few situations where that would be wise, but I see it all the time at restaurants, at the airport, and nearly everywhere. People who feel they have been wronged in some way start off being loud, mad and belligerent. Maybe this is how these people are all the time, but I suspect not. I believe their strategy is to show how mad or wronged they are and in so doing, get more resolution in return, though I believe this is a bad strategy.
I asked to speak to the owner, surprised to see her there on a Saturday, and then introduced myself and asked her about the status of the shirt. Now think about this for a minute, in 60 or so days since this incident happened, how many customers have they served? How many shirts have been cleaned?
Perhaps thousands–there is no expectation she would immediately remember me or my shirt, and she didn’t. With this in mind, I calmly reminded her of the situation, providing details of our discussion and her follow up phone call. She pulled my records and remembered the whole thing, and then profusely apologized that she had dropped the ball. She asked me what I felt the shirt was worth, and since it was not new, I said I thought I paid $75 for it. She offered $50 and I agreed that was fair; she then said she would write me a check, and I told her to just add the $50 to my account.
So now, I get $50 worth of additional dry cleaning and it cost her significantly less than $50 to provide the service.
When have you overreacted and not given people the benefit of the doubt? In most situations, when you calmly explain the situation, the other party will do the right thing. You might just discover there were extenuating circumstances of which you were completely unaware.
In either case, keeping a level head and remaining grounded is always the best course. In the end, if you feel the other party just won’t get on the same page, you always have the option to get righteously angry, if you have to.