I was in Pune for a customer meeting. My team had briefed me that the customer had had a very unpleasant onboarding experience a few years ago with Netcore and did not want to consider us at all for any of our products. We still managed to get a meeting for me. I was meeting the marketing manager. I began the meeting by apologising to her for the past – never an easy thing to do because it makes one vulnerable right at the start. But I wanted to address the elephant in the room. I knew that whether she mentioned it or not, that past would always cast a cloud on the future. So, it was best for me to accept our mistakes, and see if we could move past it.
It was the best thing I could have done. With my apology and promise to ensure that we would go the extra mile to ensure the next experience would be smooth, the conversation immediately switched to the new products that Netcore had and how we could help them.
In the ideal world, we would not make mistakes and thus never have to apologise. But life is never that simple. We are humans, not machines, and so we err. In most cases, the natural reaction is to put the blame on other people or circumstances beyond our control. The non-obvious action is to accept one’s mistake and apologise. An apology can be disarming and can set the stage for a better future, but it is our ego that prevents us from opening the door to accepting that we did something wrong.
At a recent conference, an attendee walked up to me and said, “I liked your presentation. But let me tell you the reality of my experience with your company. A few years ago, one of your sales persons came for a meeting. His first question to me was – So, what is your business? I ended the meeting right there. For me, that question spoke a lot about the culture of the company.” I was not prepared for this direct criticism. I had no idea about the incident. Instead of defending the indefensible, I replied, “I am really sorry for what happened. It is not the Netcore way. I hope you will give us an opportunity to re-initiate a relationship because the products we have can very much help improve your customer engagement and retention.” The “sorry” helped and a conversation began. After the meeting, I called up Kalpit (Netcore’s CEO), narrated the incident and suggested that we make sure such incidents never happen again.
In personal or in corporate life, saying sorry – and meaning it – can help bygones be bygones. For that, the first step – actually looking the other person in the eyes and apologising – is the hardest and the most important.
