Miscommunication

When I was a teenager and worked at a local dairy queen one of the mistakes I made involved misunderstanding a customer’s order. When I started at the place I was told that a value meal could be made of any main menu item, so a customer could either choose from the pictured combinations on the menu or select one of the other items listed to the right and append it with fries and a soft drink. One day I didn’t quite understand the customer and thought the order was for a two cheese burger meal when they meant two cheese burger meals. Recognizing the mistake I obtained the extra fries and drink for the customer when it came time to deliver. Fortunately my manager didn’t care as it was almost a negligible cost and while I wasn’t an exemplary employee I didn’t screw up all that often and showed up on time.

I was thinking of that experience from more than sixteen years ago when I had another instance of misunderstanding a customer recently. Being at the end of the year a lot of companies purchase services for next year now. Last week someone from a large company called to purchase what I thought was a single quantity of something my company sells. The customer was in a hurry, calling at the last minute within their company’s billing cycle needing an immediate invoice. I asked some follow-up questions to ensure I knew as much as I could in order to complete the sale.

It happened that my company’s billing department, on the east coast, was out for a holiday party the afternoon I needed the invoice so it was delayed and we got it out just a few hours before losing the sale. As soon as it was out the customer wrote back to inform me that they intended to purchase a grouping of our products. Fortunately our billing department, now in, redid the invoice in a few minutes. It was a good mistake as the grouping meant that the sale increased ten times from the way I understood it. So instead of losing the cash from some fries and watered down soft drinks some serious cash was made.

I went over in my mind the sales call and I remember asking questions specific to the single product. Perhaps it was timing related, the customer was in a hurry. English is a fickle language and after so many years I still find myself learning.