Honesty / BONDED CLIENT
65
Honest Is As Honest Does
Build client trust while taking responsibility for mistakes, accidents or unexpected outcomes.
by Dana Durrance, MA, and Laurel Lagoni, MS
Adapted from Connecting with Clients: Practical Communication for 10 Common Situations, 2nd ed. (AAHA Press, 2010).
Your clients have chosen cremation for their dog, Comet, after he dies. They wish to have Comet individually cremated, with the remains (ashes) returned to them afterward.
Because your clinic offers this service
to clients, you agree to make the appro- priate arrangements with the local pet cemetery/crematory. After a week, you realize that Comet’s
cremated remains have not come back to your office. After speaking with the peo- ple at the crematory and checking back through your own records, you realize that you forgot to write down your cli- ents’ request for individual cremation. The pet crematory’s policy is that, without written instructions designating a body for individual cremation, all bod- ies are taken care of by mass cremation, with the ashes scattered on the grounds of the pet cemetery.
The sick feeling in your stomach tells you that this is what happened to Comet. You are concerned about protecting
yourself. What if your clients take their business to another clinic or, even worse, decide to sue you?
That afternoon, the clients swing by unexpectedly to pick up Comet’s cre- mated remains. You now have to explain to them what has happened.
Trends magazine, November/December 2010
Use active listening and paraphrasing to understand your clients’ responses and current requests.
Assessment: What’s going on here? Some people refuse to apologize,
even when they know they are clearly wrong, because they do not want to feel like they are in a vulnerable position. For them, being vulnerable usually feels like a loss of power or strength. Some people blame others when
mistakes are made. Blaming is a way to shirk responsibility. Psychologists say we blame others for things we have done because we are afraid of rejection and afraid that people will think less of us if they find out what we have done. Still others apologize and take responsi- bility for everything that goes wrong, even when they are clearly not responsible. None of these attitudes are effective
ways to communicate or to rectify mistakes. Being honest goes hand-in-hand with apologizing. In some cases, offering an apology also means taking responsibility and attempting to right a wrong. When you decide to be honest and to apologize to a client, it is an opportunity to use every communication technique described in this book [Connecting with Clients]. Although apologizing and being honest are almost always the profes- sional and right things to do, it still takes tremendous courage for you to do so.
To order Connecting with Clients: Practical Communication for
10 Common Situations, 2nd ed., by Dana
Durrance, MA, and Laurel Lagoni, MS
(AAHA Press, 2010), go to the AAHA Store
(
www.aahanet.org) or call (800) 883-6301.
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