Michael Jordan's Weblog

A company that never makes mistakes loses a lot of opportunities to delight their customers.

Traditional Quality programs that focus on continuous improvement and statistical process control intuitively drive defects out of their processes, products, and services. In so doing, these companies can smoothe out their customers' experiences to the point where the customer never has to focus on how great the service is.

In some cases, though, a minor glitch in service creates a very important opportunity. The glitch will grab the customer's attention and in this heightened state of awareness, the company can swoop in and make it all better.

Now, in order for this to work, the glitch can't be too big, and the Company's process for making it right has to be swift, effective, friendly, and professional.

Just remember, it's not all about prevention. Consider defects as opportunities to do real customer service.