At the end of the year,
a big romance novel bookseller
went out of business.
I had a book releasing
in February.
Readers had pre-ordered it
but the bookseller didn’t give them
a refund.
If I had published that book
at a big New York publisher
and that reader had contacted the publisher,
the publisher would have told her
there was nothing they could do.
Their issue was with the bookseller.
But I self-published that book.
Readers contacted me.
Normally, I don’t give readers
free copies of books either.
But this wasn’t a normal situation.
I gave them a copy of the book
and kept those readers as customers.
Robert M. Galford
and
Cary Greene,
share*
“When small businesses
start to grow,
owners often find
they need to establish
formal rules and procedures
so things will be done correctly
even if they’re unable
to supervise in person.
That’s smart policy.
But those rules invite sabotage
– instantly –
when they prevent
employees’ personal judgment
from overriding processes that,
for whatever reason,
are not working in the moment.”
Consider giving your employees
permission
in some cases to take short cuts,
to bend the rules
to make the customer happy.
*March/April 2017
The Costco Connection