Reflection on Interpersonal Communication
Dear Brad,
I would be sharing about an interpersonal communication problem that occurred when I was working in an events management company. This incident happened when I was planning my first event. I had to plan an event consisting of an exhibition, seminars and classes to teach seniors how to use mobile phones and tablets.
I would have to take charge of many different segments such as goodie bags, handling of tablets and phones, liaising with sponsors and client and logistics matters. When the event was passed on to me, I requested for an updated count of all the goodie bag items as well as the logistics list from my operations colleague, who will be named Eric due to confidentiality issues. Nearing the date of the event, the client emailed asking about the current count of the goodie bag items and I provided the updated numbers according to the list given by Eric.
However, the client called immediately after and sounded annoyed as that was not the number communicated to her previously, it was actually short of around 200 items. Upon hearing that, I was appalled as the client was quite aggressive and I did not know what to do. Furthermore, it was my first event and I had no one else to turn to. After I personally went to check on the stock, it turns out that Eric was the one who counted wrongly. I was vexed that Eric did not communicate the updated numbers accurately and the client insisted that it was my fault. However, I did not double check previously which was a mistake on my part as well.
If you were in my shoes, what do you think could be done to prevent this problem?
Best regards,
Pei Ling
*Blogs I commented on:
- Xenia
- Jeanie
- Sarah
- Cheryl
- Laura
Dear Pei Ling
ReplyDeleteIt must have been a vexing situation for you. Being new and had not handled the situation well must have led you to have the feeling that you may have incurred a bad impression on your team. I understand that you must feel that you are at fault but it was not entirely your responsibility. However, to the customer, you was her point of contact, leading to her pushing all the responsibility to you.
There are ways to handle such situation when it arises. According the Thomas-Kilmann conflict assessment, in your situation, you would need to lean more towards cooperativeness as it was partially your fault since you did not checked before relaying the numbers to her. Out of the five conflict management modes, it would be most suitable to use both compromising and accommodating mode.
If I was placed in that situation, I would immediately apologise for the mistake that I have made and for the inconvenience I have caused to the customer. At the same time, I would take note of my tone and language towards the customer as she is angry at the point of time. Also, I would reassure the customer that I would personally make sure the accuracy of the numbers and relay to her the correct numbers.
It is definitely a tough situation but I believe it would definitely help you gain experience in the future if the situation were to arise again. Thank you for reading this comment. I look forward to hearing from you on how you handled the situation.
Warmest Regards
Jeaine
Dear Pei Ling,
ReplyDeleteThankyou for sharing a story on what you have encountered.
I believe that everyone would have been through this situation before. I have met colleagues that are irresponsible as well, and that often makes me the scapegoat of all of the mistakes made by him/her. For instance, it is a learning point for all of us to note.
According to Deborah Petersen, she have mentioned that " Do not overpromise and underdeliver, but instead, maintain credibility by doing the follow-up work to always meet your commitments". I know that you might be busy at that point of time, and thus asked for your operation colleague for help. However, we must also be responsible of ensuring the right counting of stocks and follow-up after the handing over of items.
If i'm in your situation, I will apologise immediately as what Jeaine has mentioned. Afterwards, I would recount it myself, so as to identify the root of the problem on why the stock did not tallied with the client. I understand you have found out that Eric was the one in wrong. However, we should always show the client our professional side, while crafting an follow-up email to express your negligence in this case.
You may approach Eric individual after this incident, and I am sure that he would learn from his mistakes and prevent this for happening in the future.
Thank you for reading this comment Pei Ling! Do feel free to contact me if you face any difficult situation next time.
Warmest Regards,
Carolyn
Dear Pei Ling,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience, Laura and I are sorry to hear about you unfortunate incident. In response to your problem, we would suggest to use the compromising approach under the Thomas- Kilmann conflict assessment.
As you and Eric had both made a mistake therefore, both of you should not point fingers and focus on the problem such as identifying the root cause of the problem. After which, both of you should come out with a solution to prevent such incident from happening in future. For instance, you and Eric could conduct cross check diligently with each other to ensure that the information is accurate before sending to the client.
With that, we hope that you find our suggestions helpful and you will be able to better manage such issue in the future.
Cheers
Cheryl & Laura
Dear Jeanie, Carolyn, Cheryl, Laura and other readers,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments on my post and for understanding my situation at that point of time. I have taken each of your valuable comments into consideration and I appreciate the solutions you guys have provided to solve this communication issue. Hence, I will be sharing more about what I have done in the following paragraphs.
As mentioned by Jeanie, Carolyn, Cheryl and Laura, I was also partially at fault for failing to count the stocks myself. Thus, even though Eric did not provide me with the correct stock count, I immediately apologised to the client over the phone and drafted a follow-up email to express my negligence on reporting the wrong numbers to them.
I understand that I was not meticulous enough to double check the stocks as it was located high up on the shelves. However, as mentioned by Cheryl and Laura, this should not be an issue of pointing fingers, but rather, focusing on the problem at hand and identifying the root cause. After this incident, I had a talk with Eric and from then on, I would politely request from the operations team to help to double count together with me to ensure that the numbers are accurate.
I have learned a lot from this incident, especially since this is my first full time job. Learning how to be meticulous and detailed in the events industry is crucial as huge events generally require many logistical items and I know I would have to master this skill if I were to go out into the industry in future. I have also gained better interpersonal skills in communicating with my colleagues to ensure that such issues would not happen again in future.
Thank you all for reading my post and I hope this would be helpful for our upcoming IWSP!
Best regards,
Pei Ling
Dear Pei Ling,
DeleteThank you for sharing how the situation has turned out in the end. It really provides a good learning opportunity for us. I look forward to hearing more learning experience from you.
Warmest Regards
Jeaine
Dear Pei Ling,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for sharing this interesting scenario. In it you give clear, concise and yet complete picture of the problem issue. I appreciate the feedback you've received, too, and how Jeaine mentioned th potential of 'cooperation' from the Thomas-Kilmann instrument and how the last peer team connected your experience to Thomas-Kilmann as well.
You've also done a very fine job of responding to your commentators. I see lot of learning here.
Best wishes,
Brad