Along with all the other Principles of Applied Stupidity, one I should really emphasize is the utility of making mistakes.
Of course in school, we are all taught that mistakes are always bad. BUT
I once knew a guy who ran a car dealership. Whenever he sold a new car to a new customer, he would wait a week and then call them up and say, “I’m so sorry, we made an error on your invoice. We overcharged you $27.50. We’ll be sending you a check today, with our profound apologies.”
Wow. You would think admitting to a mistake would be a terrible thing to do; but he actually manufactured a phony mistake. Why? Because in doing so AND IN ADMITTING TO IT, he made his entire company seem humble, concerned, and incredibly honest–all things we rarely think about car dealers. He created tremendous customer loyalty, and it only cost him $27.50, which he would of course easily recoup when that customer returned for service and eventually for a new car.
Of course we don’t normally want to make mistakes. And you should keep them to a minimum, otherwise you’ll look incompetent (of course sometimes that has advantages too). But no matter how careful you are, a certain number of errors are inevitable, and the way you handle them, not the absence of them, is the test of your performance ability. Just as personal misunderstandings can lead to fabulous “makeup sex,” making and admitting to mistakes makes you seem ever more human and approachable, and can open the door to even better connection to your customers.
(c) Justin Locke
