Heilindi | Customer Centric Operations
FAILURES
Pretty sure I wouldn't be here if it weren't for some important failures and setbacks that life decided to bring along the way.
Know how they say: ”be careful what you wish for”? Well, in the same time, ”what you fear most will come true” has found me when I was least expecting. Of course. :-)
The irony is that I was actually preparing the ”Fears and Failures” conference, when I got the idea of writing a nice message to a few bloggers, so they can join our communication campaign pre-event.
Long story short, after days of preparation, here stands in front of my eyes a message which started with: ”Dear {FirstName}”. The message has been sent in a bulk to aprox. 20-30 of the bloggers, some of the most important local ones I might add.
A thread quickly developed, jokes and harsh messages started to follow. I have done it, I've ruined the conference's image. Three long breaths, let's not panic. I'm sure we can fix this.
This is how it went:
Step 1: speak with the team's manager and inform the CEO, take responsibility for the issue
Step 2: send a ”reply all” message, with the same humorous tone + include cute hashtags
Step 3: send a personalised message to each and every one of them, in a relaxed but serious tone, taking responsibility for the error
Step 4: include an invitation to meet personally for a coffee and further discuss about a possible collaboration
Outcome:
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some of the most professional bloggers quickly changed the tone of the thread, asking their colleagues to understand it was an honest mistake
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some of them even thought it was a smart way of catching their attention, since it was for the ”Fears and Failures” conference
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most of them accepted the invitation to meet personally and successfully collaborated in various campaigns ever since
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the error remained ”in the house” and not even one blogger posted about it
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the conference was a success
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my former colleagues and I can still have a good laugh about this
LESSONS
The most important lesson from the story above is: always send a personalised, custom tailored message for the press, bloggers or any media person. The community and personal relationship we create with each other can make the difference between a successful or a failed story.
But the lessons we learn are not only important from the professional point of view; see, I quickly understood integrity has to be both personally and professionally, otherwise it will simply not work well.
During our life, we have tons of AHA moments. We get defined by the experiences, places, actions and people surrounding us.
Hundreds of moments of personal research and one sabbatical year helped me better answer some important questions and thus, define the personal business model.
During the European Volunteering Service, I literally calmed down and started to live life on a slower pace, learning in a non-formal way.
This is what I learned, by doing it:
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hold space for persons, myself included
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live in the moment, but plan for the future in a smart way
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give up expectations
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stop being a perfectionist who gets stuck
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work smarter, not harder
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active listening
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assertiveness
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patience