Do You Use The AAA Method?

While it’s true that I’m a firm advocate of using
systems and processes as much as possible in your business, it’s a fact
that those same systems and processes can occasionally fail us (usually
due to "user error").

What do you do when a system or process you’ve established doesn’t work as planned?

• Do you bury your head under a pillow and hope it goes away? or
• Do you defend your systems knowing they couldn’t possibly let you down? or
• Do you take the AAA Approach?

I coined the term"AAA" which stands for Acknowledge, Apologize and Address and is a spin off exceptional client service.

1. you should ACKNOWLEDGE that there was a problem or issue,
2. you
   should APOLOGIZE for it — the fact that it’s been brought to your
   attention means someone was most likely inconvenienced (or think they
   were) and
3. you should ADDRESS the problem or issue.

The first two — Acknowledge and Apologize — are pretty self-explanatory.  Let’s discuss "Address" for a moment:

When
something goes wrong and you’ve acknowledged and apologized, it’s how
you address the situation that can make the most impact.

Take a
few moments to jot a personal note (yes…pen and paper, not the
automated online card-sending systems) or send a personalized email
with a link to a free teleseminar recording (something you would
normally sell) or other small token.

The size of the gift depends
on the size of the issue and inconvenience, in all cases, you want to
"over address" any problem you have.

Remember, we all experience
glitches in our systems, it’s how you handle them which will help
decide whether or not a prospect decides to become a client and whether
or not a client decides to remain one.

Your Coaching Challenge

Take
a few moments this week to put yourself into your clients’ and
prospects’ shoes and try to break some of your systems: sign-up for
your free report (do you get it?), call your voicemail (what’s the
experience like?), order one of your own products (is the process
seamless easy to understand?).

By discovering these glitches yourself, you have a chance to fix them before anyone else experiences them.