Get it right ... if it goes wrong, it takes so much effort to sort out!
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-05-08 22:18:33 - Graham Ellis
When things go wrong, it gets very expensive and time consuming indeed to sort them out ... something that I was reminded of in a "personal message" I have just sent to a member of our Coffee Shop Forum. I wrote:
"My first priority where something is posted which could have legal implications for the forum is to clear it up; in doing so, I must reduce [usually eliminate] any liability that I as forum owner may have from it. My second priority is to implement any emergency actions that might be necessary to stop an immediate recurrence. My third priority is to post any necessary explanation to stop the whole membership wondering "what's going on here". My fourth to deal with aggrieved parties (if indeed anyone is feeling aggrieved), and finally (fifth) is to resolve the matter with the person / people who overstepped whatever mark it was ... which is where I now am. It all takes an awful lot of time when I could be doing other more fruitful / enjoyable things"
We have had something of a turnover of staff at Well House Manor since we opened. I think a lot (most ?) of that is simply the industry we're in with the hotel, with a transient workforce moving on - and it's partly because the jobs with us are a bit unusual in some ways (subject for another day!). But I'm very conscious indeed of just how sponging of extra resources it is to have a team member for whom everything seems to go wrong. We now have an excellent current team ... things go wrong from time to time for everyone, for sure, but I no longer feel the need to have a full set of work clothes to hand, 24 x 7, "just in case".
Yet another example ... I was training people this week who do technical support and the message 'we always have trouble with xxx software' came across. Ah - but talk it through and 95% of the user base was happy and not having trouble - it was just the 5% (perhaps those for whom the product wasn't really suitable!) were using 95% of the support resource.
And so getting it right first time is so important. I will always double check payments being put through. Make sure that I have a spare computer with me on courses "just in case" - far better to have to use a backup than be left with something to sort out later.