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🙊 Working with the End in Mind

"Help! A client said my cookies were too dry!" 

❌ "Block them."

❌ "Tell them to bring you the cookies back."

❌ "Tell them all sales final."

❌ "Tell them to kick rocks." (or cookies that are hard as rocks 😂

It's no doubt that in an open forum like Facebook Cookie Groups, you're going to get a biased response in dealing with client issues. Heck - we've all been on the receiving end of a less than savory client email. 

But what if you worked with the end in mind?

Lemme explain - in every confrontation, there are typically three optional ends:

• Win / Lose - one person wins 100%, the other walks away with 0%
• Lose / Lose - neither party walks away with any %
• Win / Win - both parties walk away with a portion of 100% - this is a compromise situation 

Your goal should be the win / win. Contrary to popular belief, your clients don't want to deal with messy refund situations either. In a 2021 poll collecting 1,654 comments from Sugar Cookie Marketing Group Members, most bakers don't have to refund - even when it's offered.

• 0 Order Refunds - 71%
• .5 Order Refunds - 4% (less than a whole order)
• 1 Order Refund - 16%
• 2 Order Refunds - 3%
• 3 Order Refunds - 1%

It's not you against your client. It's you and your client against a problem. Being on the same side of "resolution finding" puts you together as a team finding the best possible outcome for two parties vs. you against them - in which case, it's a fight to the proverbial death - winner takes all, loser loses. 

✅ Pro-tip: Losers don't take losing very well. Rather they take it to review profiles

Here are a few tips to help you "work with the end in mind" and make the best decision for your business: 

1. Give Yourself 24 Hours. You can use this in your personal relationships too - giving yourself some distance from an issue right off the bat gives your brain a chance to process and your emotions some time to simmer down. Brash decisions and emails rarely result in the most calculated course of action.
2. Find a Bounce Buddy. Bounce ideas off of a third party who isn't invested in the outcome and isn't a yes man (or woman). Third parties can provide unbiased perspectives. Bonus if it's someone with a business / customer relations background.
3. Make a List of Compromise Options. I love a list. Make a list of all the possible outcomes and then find that "win-win" one that gives both people a little bit of a win.
4. Create an Oopsie Budget. Refunds hurt because they hit your pocket. But what if I told you they didn't have to - not when you have a budget for mistakes funded by other client orders. Creating an "oopsie budget" allows you to run to the refund without gettin' that hit in the wallet.
5. Consider the Confirmation Bias. In a group of like-minded people, we often seek out the answers that resonate with our beliefs. This is dangerous because counter-opinions, even if they may be the best approach, are dismissed since they're immediately seen as "that's not what I think the answer should be - so thus you're wrong." Confirmation biases blind us to better options and different experiences. 
6. Read without Emotion. I make Corrie do this with texts from her ex. Don't insinuate emotion- anger, spite, frustration, annoyance - it's easy to infer these from text-based communication. But it may set you off in the wrong direction - defensiveness. Attempt to read correspondences with the least emotional inflection possible. It'll help you sift through the words to find the meaning - one that may be less attacking than you initially expected.