Something will eventually go wrong when running a business. There is no exception to this rule. It is an inevitably that all business owners must prepare for. When the customer experience goes south, more often than not, it is because one or more of your systems are broken or haven’t been properly set up in the first place.
A rule of thumb is that when something goes wrong once, it might be a particular employee’s fault, or it could be just a fluke. If it happens twice, though, you should begin to suspect that it’s the fault of a broken or missing system. When one encounters repeated or similar mistakes, it would probably be best to examine the system involved and review its design and implementation.
While people do make mistakes, generally they will learn from said mistakes in an effort to not repeat it. As such, is a mistake is repeated often enough, one might want to take a look at the system to see if it is flawed. Failure of systems can include:
Training and Preparation
Companies should ask themselves if they have done all they can to prepare employees for their appointed tasks. Have these employees been effectively coached? Have they ensured that the employee fully understands their task?
Scheduling
Did you ask your staff to be at work exactly on the dot? Perhaps it would be best to encourage them to arrive ten to fifteen minutes earlier. Doing so will allow staff to mentally prepare, boot up the computers, and get the bank ready to make change without having to scramble around like a headless chicken.
Employee Selection
Saying “there was a failure in hiring” is a bit different from saying “it’s the employee’s fault.” If the worker isn’t a good fit for the position, if they’re not detail-oriented enough, for example, it’s not their fault; it’s the fault of the system that was responsible for selecting them, and it’s time to get to work improving that system.
Overall, the ability to discover the systems in your company that are poorly designed, imperfectly implemented and maintained, or flat-out missing depends on having built a culture where mistakes are embraced as learning opportunities, and customer complaints are seen as opportunities for improvement. Employees need to be comfortable in admitting their mistakes. If not, the risk of employees covering up errors may skyrocket.
