When you start a new project or take on a new task in your life, do you spend a lot of time worrying about making mistakes?

In your first job out of university, you probably took a position where you had very little experience compared to the rest of the employees in the same role. Yet no matter your experience, your customer’s expectations remained high.

Inevitably, we all mess up at some point; usually due to lack of experience. In some cases the mistakes impact other parts of the business, cause down time or delay project deadlines. Obviously the client would not be happy in these circumstances.

The trick is to be able to to turn a stressful situation like this into a win for both yourself and the customer. Here is the simple process:

1. Take Ownership: Make sure the client knows you are taking full responsibility for the problem. Apologize for the mistake and assure them you are going to do everything possible to correct it.
2. Focus On The Solution: Instead of getting frustrated, upset or panicked, force yourself to only dwell on potential solutions. Call colleagues for support and research the problem thoroughly. Eventually a solution will present itself.
3. Go Above And Beyond: Once a solution is determined, implement and test the solution. Then do anything else beyond the call of duty to prove to the customer that you care about doing a good job. It could be something simple like writing a process document on how the problem was resolved or something more complex like adding features to their system that they didn’t pay for (as a bonus).

In many cases, you’ll be able to turn the once frustrated/upset customer into a raving fan. The fact that you made a mistake is easily forgivable because you earn the respect and admiration of the client through your actions.

Learn to accept the fact that you are going to mess up at some point (in life or in business). When you commit to excellence and do what it takes to correct mistakes when you make them, you not only pick up a ton of technical skill, you also earn the support of the people you deal with.